It Goes Up And Down - On HAITUS
by shadowofthemoonxx
Summary: Katie Gardner and Travis Stoll. Those two names in one sentence can't be a good thing, right? It started off with a quest. Does it bring them closer? Their friends keep trying to play matchmaker for them, but will it work? Then, there's trouble brewing in camp. What could go worse? Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone this is a Tratie fanfiction and it's set after the war with Gaia. All chapters will be in Katie's POV. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO. All rights belong to Rick Riordan! **

* * *

I sighed heavily and sat down, leaning my back against the big tree near the strawberry fields. I seemed to be in a daze a lot lately. Two weeks ago, I had received the news that my daddy had died. It was hard to take in but it's getting easier to deal with. I loved him a lot and I still do. He wasn't one of those parents who hated because their child was a demigod. You could say my father and Percy's mother were similar.

I didn't seem to be concentrating on anything. My head was in the clouds floating around. Everyone showed sympathy towards me and I meant everyone. I appreciated it and hated it at the same time. I liked it because I knew that they cared about me, but I also hated it because I was the centre of attention at times. And you should know, I prefer staying hidden, but that wasn't possible because I was known as the counsellor of the Demeter cabin and because I was one of the more known fighters in camp.

Earlier this year, the seven demigods had won the war against Gaia, sending that earth lady to Tartarus. If you don't know who the demigods were, they're Percy Jackson (son of Poseidon), Annabeth Chase (daughter of Athena), Jason Grace (son of Jupiter), Leo Valdez (son of Hephaestus), Piper McLean (daughter of Aphrodite), Hazel Levesque (daughter of Pluto) and Frank Zhang (son of Mars). They came home with dignity and pride. They were all offered immortality but had politely declined because apparently demi-god life was much more 'interesting' than godhood. I couldn't blame them. Being a god, you live forever. Wouldn't it get boring. After the war, everyone became less stressed and we were back to our unrestrained selves, which we had all missed.

I was so out of it, I didn't realise a certain person sit next to me.

"Are you okay?" he nudged me.

I looked away when I snapped out of it.

"Why would you care?" I asked.

He shrugged nonchalantly and simply said, "I know what it feels like."

"Really now?" I said sarcastically.

"Yeah." I looked at him and saw that the mischievous glint in his eyes were long gone. They seemed serious and slightly distant. His usual crooked grin or sarcastic smile was gone. His lips were pressed into a thin straight line. I knew he wasn't joking. Wait... but why was he here?

"Why are you here? Another prank?" I asked, suspiciously, "And we don't even like each other."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because you and your brother never stop pranking me," I pointed out, answering both questions at once.

"True. But it's for the fun of it. And who said I didn't like you?" Did that mean he did like me? His seriousness was replaced with amusement. The glint was back in his eyes and he had a smirk plastered on his face.

"Well first, you've played a million pranks on me when you _know _I hate them. Second, you never stop annoying me. Third, you're always-" I listed, but was cut off.

"Ok. I get it. I do a lot of things that piss you off," he interjected.

"You just realised, huh?" I asked.

"No. I think I figured that out when we first met," he replied. Hmm.. he still remembered when we first met. I remembered that we were only eight (we were one of the few who came when we were really young). All the young kids were running around and while doing an activity, Travis made fun of me because I was wearing pigtails. He pulled on my hair lightly and teased me. I was really bossy and annoyed that day.

According to Percy, my attitude reminded him of my mother, Demeter. I had to admit, it was true. We had the same personality. I admitted that I was kind of bossy at times.

I just realised... Travis and I had a friendly conversation... What is this? Some parallel universe?

I was about to drift off into my own world once again, but I saw Travis get up. Suddenly, a thing, or should I say figure came rushing towards us and it was enveloped with green smoke.

This cannot be good.

Rachel Dare, our current oracle was standing right in front of us. Wild crazed expression, green smoke, weird voice, blank eyes, you name it. Travis and I exchanged worried glances, as the frizzy red-head opened her mouth, spilling out yet another prophecy.

_Daughter of harvest and son of trickery  
Shall exterminate all love's misery  
You shall go find love's bow  
Go somewhere to see the show  
You must go where the hero has been  
It doesn't matter if you're unseen_

Then, Rachel collapsed. Only seconds later, she gained consciousness and rubbed her eyes. Travis and I stayed frozen on our spots, staring at the air in front of us.

"Whoa, I was just watching the Apollo kids play basketball. How did I get here?" she asked, looking around.

"Aww man. Was it a prophecy again?" she answered her own question. We nodded.

"Well, come on. Meeting time," she muttered and walked off, with Travis and I trudging behind her.

* * *

**I hope you liked it! Coming up with the prophecy was a bit hard because of the rhyming. **

**Song of the Chapter: Start Of Something New by Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens. **

**PS: If you didn't read my previous story 'My High School Life', the song of the chapter is whatever song that's stuck in my head. :D ****  
**

**READ AND REVIEW! :D **


	2. Chapter 2

**Only after a few days, I have 24 emails about this story. Now, I have like a zillion. I can't be bothered counting. And it's only been one chapter! I'm so happy! But I know a lot of you guys already followed me from my previous story! :) **

**Review Responses - **

**LazySundayGirl: Thanks for reviewing! Haha, I talked to you via PM... :) **

**WritingIsMyPassion15: Haha, sorry about that. I was trying to get Call Me Maybe out of my head and then that song popped up. Thanks! :P **

**ChristieLaurenn: Thanks! Umm.. I probably won't get a Beta reader, because it would stir a bit more trouble because of different time zones and others. **

**I know my prophecy was kind of vague, but it's much easier to understand! The last line 'It doesn't matter if you're unseen' was just a random, spontaneous one. I just needed something to rhyme. :P **

**Thank you everyone who reviewed, followed and favourited! Haha, I would usually list everyone, but I'm getting really confused with the emails for this story and 'My High School Life'... sounds legitimate enough! :P **

**By the way, I won't be uploading as much/fast as I did for 'My High School Life' (for those who know), because I'm kind of handling 4 stories right now. o.O I have 2 on WattPad. Actually I have 3, but one is on hold. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO. All rights belong to Rick Riordan! **

* * *

"The prophecy is pretty vague if you ask me. Anyone could figure it out," Annabeth shrugged.

"What does vague mean?" came Percy's _very _smart response, causing everyone, including me, to roll our eyes. Only him.

"It means obvious, Seaweed Brain."

"Oh.. okay."

"The first line," Annabeth started. Leave it up to her to get to business. "Daughter of harvest, son of trickery. That has to be Katie and Travis because Rachel appeared in front of them."

All heads turned towards us. "What?" I asked and they looked away.

"I still don't know why it has to be us two," I grumbled.

"I don't know about... the ... next line... Why are you guys looking at me like that?" Annabeth asked.

"You don't know something?" Will asked, in utter disbelief.

She rolled her eyes and stated, "Just because I'm a daughter of Athena, doesn't mean I have to know anything."

"She has a good point," Lou Ellen agreed.

"You shall go find love's bow..." Travis said, "I'm pretty sure Aphrodite's sacred object is a dove."

"It is," Piper stated, "But my mother is goddess of a lot of things. Beauty, love, pleasure and procreation. She also has a lot of sacred objects, but none of them is a bow."

"Hey! Who's that dude who shoots arrows at people's butts and then that person falls in love with the first person they see? Isn't it Cupid or something?" Leo asked.

Annabeth snapped her fingers and exclaimed, "That's it! Eros!"

"Who's Eros?" a few people asked.

"The Greek version of Cupid. Mortals don't usually use Eros, they use Cupid. That's probably why you don't know him."

"Leo. You are very wise to think of Eros. I'm sure you're correct. Now, onto the rest of the prophecy," Chiron said. He told us that the prophecy was so simple, he wasn't going to help us figure it out.

"The next line must be Vegas," Connor said, "If you go there, hijack a car, bro! Oh, and steal some candy and cash."

"You know I will."

I rolled my eyes at their typical behaviour, but they were sons of Hermes. I can't change them!

"It doesn't have to be Vegas," I said, "It could be just some guy singing on the streets."

"Gee.. way to kill our happy mood, Kitty-Kat," Travis said, sarcastically. I glared at him for using that stupid nickname.

"You must go where the hero has been. It has to be Percy's journeys, because it says hero not heroes," Annabeth stated, yet again. Sometimes, I envy children of Athena.

"Ok. Last line. It doesn't matter if you're unseen. Who puts that in a prophecy?" Percy asked.

Annabeth shrugged, "It could mean anything. Some lines don't have to mean much."

"I know what the second line means," someone said. We turned to look for the source of the voice and found Nico hiding in the shadows.

"What does it mean?" I asked, curiously.

"Love's misery. Come on! How can you not know? Have you not realised how many couples have broken up and fought in the past few weeks?" he asked.

When I thought about it, what he said was definitely true. 'Percabeth' and Connor and Kacyie were having problems. So were a lot of others.

"I was in the Underworld for only sixteen hours and all that happened was my father and step-mother arguing. I'm pretty sure that I'm right. Have you seen Percy and Annabeth? Their fighting is so annoying."

The two lovebirds looked slightly offended, but they knew it was true. Nico avoided talking about his relationship with Thalia. Everyone knew that it didn't end well for the both of them. Long story short: only months ago, Thalia left the huntresses and came back to camp. She confessed her love for Nico (in private, of course) and they started dating. It was Hades when they were not on nice terms with each other.

"Okay, children. We've figured out the prophecy, but we don't know when this has to be completed by," Chiron stated.

"Hopefully, not today or tomorrow," the idiot next to me mumbles.

"Since we don't know, you shall go as soon as possible. So you will leave tomorrow at dawn, after a good night's sleep. Katie and Travis. Remember to bring your clothes, drachmas, human cash and other necessities. And don't argue too much," Chiron ordered us.

"Yes, sir."

"Okay good. Everyone, you are all dismissed."

We all separated ways. Outside the big house, I stopped Travis from walking any further and stood in front of him. "Eight in the morning, in front of Thalia's tree."

He nodded and said, "Okay. See ya."

* * *

"OI! Get your fat butt out of bed now!" I stalked into the Hermes cabin with Annabeth trailing behind. I watched a lot of kids fall out of bed in surprise in amusement. Travis groaned and rolled over, so his backside was towards us.

I sighed frustratingly, walked over to his bunk and stripped him of his blankets.

"Hey! What was that for?" he asked.

"Oh I don't know.. maybe something to do with the quest and how I told you to meet me at six!"

His eyes widened, "Oh, sorry." He stumbled out of bed, tripping over his own feet and sheets and fell onto the floor in a heap, causing me to laugh my head off. He glared at me and retreated to the bathroom.

"Meet us at Thalia's tree!" I shouted.

"Yes ma'am," he stuck his head out the door and saluted me. I rolled my eyes and walked to the tree.

Ten minutes later, his figure came running up the hill and stopped right in front of us, panting for breath.

"Okay guys. Percy has been to many places. I suggest you go to the safest places first," Annabeth said, in a business-like manner.

"None of those places are safe," Travis mumbled.

"Which one is the safest? All the places are dangerous and we don't know how long we have, so it'll be pretty hard.

"Okay. Don't go to the Underworld, labyrinth, the Sea of Monsters, Ogygia or the Roman Camp. Those would just take more time. Only go there if you've been to every other place. I'm suggesting maybe Manhattan, his school, Hoover Dam, those simple places. Maybe even check his house. And go to Lotus Casino too. That's not as time consuming as the others. Stay out of any trouble. If you stay at hotel, don't stay for longer than two days. It'll only attract monsters. Got it? Iris Message me if you need any help. I'm pretty sure you'll figure it out and I'm certain that Lady Aphrodite will help you, because the quest has something to do with love."

I sank that information all in. "Do you mind repeating that, but slower?" Travis asked.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Katie knows. She'll explain on the way. I suggest you go to Lotus Casino first, then Manhattan and work your way from there."

"Okay. Thanks Annabeth. Bye," I said, waving at her. Travis does the same and Annabeth wished us good luck.

"How are we going to go to Lotus Casino with Argus not able to drive us?" I asked. Nobody knew why Argus wasn't available for a few months, but we lived with it. Travis suddenly smirked and trudged off with me following him.

"I have an idea. You're not with a son of Hermes for nothing," he said, cockily.

"No need to remind me, Stoll," I muttered.

He put a hand up to his chest exaggerating his mock-hurt. "I feel so unloved, Kitty-Kat."

I scowled, "Don't call me that." he shrugged. I found myself at a carpack filled with mortal cars about fifteen minutes later. "What are you going to do? Hijack a car?" I asked.

"Of course. What else would I do?" He had a good point. "Oooh! That car!" I exclaimed, pointing at a black convertible. He stared at me like I was a Cyclops. "What the Hades happened to Katie?"

"Uhh... I'm right here..."

"I thought you would be screaming at me about this, but okay..." He was able to hijack the car in a few minutes and managed to start the engine. I climbed into the passenger seat and placed my bag on the car floor.

"Hey! Who are those two creeps in my car!" shouted a bulky forty year old-looking man. Seriously? He owned this car? "Oi! You two! Out! I'm calling the cops!"

Oh, gods. "Travis, go!" I shouted. He was oblivious to what was going on because he was busy with putting his iPod on the dock and blasting music. I didn't even want to know how he sneaked that into camp.

"Huh, what? Where's the monster?" he asked, suddenly alert and pulled out his sword. Because of the racket that the mortal was causing, many others were watching. Those people stared at us in fear.. well, Travis in fear. They couldn't see through the Mist, so the sword probably looked like a gun or something. They started screaming frantically and running away from us, but the bulky man came charging towards us faster than I thought was possible for him.

"TRAVIS! For the gods' sake, put your foot on the freaking pedal and drive!" I shouted, not wanting to be harassed by some stranger.

"Okay.. wait a minute," he said, still plugging his iPod in.

"That wasn't a question. It was an order! Go!" I ordered, speaking right into his ear.

He swatted his ear and said, "Gods! Calm down and keep your pants on. What's going on?" He started driving out of the parking lot, but in the wrong direction. He was headed towards the guy who owned the car. Because the hood was down, everyone could see our faces.

"Oh my gods, Travis! Faster!" I shouted.

He raised an eyebrow and looked at me, "That's what she said."

I glowered at him, "Shut up, pervert! Keep your nasty thoughts to yourself and drive! That's the guy who owns the car."

He finally seemed to understand and drove off at one hundred kilometres an hour. "Thank you," I breathed out, when we were on the main road.

"We're trained to fight. If he attacked you, we would've won," Travis pointed out.

"Yeah, I know that, but he's so.." I gestured with my hands to demonstrate the word fat.

He chuckled, "He's not here, Katie. You can say it."

"He's so fat. He'll be heavy. I swear to the gods he's heavier than twice the both of us combined. How did he even fit in the car? Anyway, if he attacked us, we would just be in a heap. He would be on top of us, squishing the life out of us and that's not how I want to die."

He busted out laughing at my outburst, but stopped when I gave him my death glare. "Sorry."

"How do we get to Vegas?" I asked, after minutes of silence. It wasn't actually silent with his music blasting but neither of us were talking.

"I have a map," he replied, bringing a map out of his pockets. "It's like a GPS to mortals. You say where you are and where you want to go and it'll give you directions. It's in Greek, so we can read it." He pulled over at the side of the road. He talked to the map... "Long Island to Lotus Casino, Las Vegas."

I could see it calculating its route and it brightened suddenly for a moment, before dimming back to its original colour. "And now, we've got the route. We just follow the instructions," Travis stated. "It's going to take ages to get there."

I nodded and he started the engine again, driving off. I place my head on my fist, leaning against the window. The chilly wind whipped around me, causing my loose hair to get messy and go in different sorts of directions.

Lotus Casino, here we come.

* * *

**YES! I finally updated! Woohoo! Sorry for the wait, but I'm busy with school and basketball. **

**Just so you know, Kaycie is a daughter of Aphrodite and and OC character. The carpark down the hill? I just made that up.**

**Sorry for those who don't like Thalico. :(**

**Song for the Chapter: Let Me Love You by Ne Yo **

**PS: Did you know that bees and goats are also Aphrodite's sacred animals?**

**READ AND REVIEW! :) **


	3. Chapter 3

**Ohmygods! I feel so bad. This is a slow update and I started writing this chapter exactly one week after uploading the previous chapter. :S I have 64 emails in my inbox for all four of my stories. So many! Gahh! But I still love you! :) **

**Review Responses - **

**LazySundayGirl: Thanks for the review! Haha, we were PM-ing... not much to say anymore. :P **

**Goddess Of Talk: Katie's only nice because she wants to get the quest over with. No curse. Thanks for reviewing! :) **

**sapphirshadow97: Thanks for reviewing! Gods/goddesses have more than one sacred object/animal. Aphrodite's most sacred animal is the dove. :)**

**I had the worst basketball game ever. You don't even want to know what happened. If you're really curious or nosy and you want to know, I'll tell you.**

**I'm changing the tense. I'm writing in present tense for a lot of other stuff and I'm used to it. Tenses confuse me.. so I'm gonna stick to present. == **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO. All rights belong to Rick Riordan! **

* * *

"Would you stop that?" I ask, very very annoyed.

"Stop what?" he ask back, with a smirk plastered on his face.

"Stop tapping! It's annoying," I hiss.

"Well, I'm sorry," he apologises, but not sounding sorry at all. He continues tapping his fingers, obviously trying to annoy me even further.

I groan in frustration, "Why in Hades did it have to be us two? Couldn't it be Percy and Annabeth like usual?"

He rolls his eyes at me, "Gods, I'm not that bad."

"Uh. Yeah, you are."

"Whatever. I'm hungry. I'm going to pull up when I see the next Taco Bell, McDonalds or fast food place," he states.

I stare at him miraculously, "It's only been two hours."

"So? I'm a growing man. I need my food."

"You sure you're a man? I think you're more like a baby," I grumble under my breath.

"I'm not deaf, you know?"

"You were meant to hear that," I shoot back.

Ten minutes later, we pull up into the parking lot at McDonalds. Travis orders the large Big Mac, large fries and a large chocolate milkshake, while I order small fries and a chicken burger with a medium-sized Coke. See the difference between our meals? How does he eat so much and still stay in shape?

We sit down in a comfortable silence, eating our food. A middle aged couple comes up to us asking us to take a picture for them. "Excuse me, could you take a picture for us? We're travelling all around America and we're taking pictures nearly everywhere. Sorry if we're interrupting anything," the lady says in a British accent. At first thought, I think that it's Medusa but she isn't wearing sunglasses or something wrapping her hair so I know it's safe. I stand up and take the camera from her hands, seeing as Travis is still trying to swallow his food.

_Snap. _I click the button and take a few more photos just in case. "Thank you," the man says. "It's okay." The lady takes the camera from me and smiles. I turn around and see the man exchanging words with Travis. The last thing I hear is something along the lines of, "Don't let her go. She's a keeper." I wonder who they're talking about.

"What did he say?" I ask him, when they're gone.

"Nothing," he replies nonchalantly, but the faintest hint of of a blush is seen on his cheeks. Aww... how cute! Wait, what did I say? Pretend I didn't say anything.

"Tell me," I continue, bumping his knee with mine.

He scowls at me and says, "No."

I shrug. "I'll find out later."

"Whatever," he sings.

* * *

"Ughh.. I can't drive anymore. I'm too tired," Travis complains.

"Well, we've been on the road for more than ten hours, of course we're tired," I say, rolling my eyes.

"Hey! I was driving. You were just sitting there."

"So? Driving doesn't take up that much energy."

"Touche... hotel?" he asks, when we see one about two hundred metres ahead.

"Yes!" I exclaim.

He parks the car in the parking lot of the hotel and we walk in to get a room. The lady at the counter is stunning, with flowing dirty blonde hair and her flawless make up. "Hello, would you like anything?" she asks.

"Yes, please. May we have a normal room with two single beds?" I ask.

"Aww.. why not one bed?" Travis whines. I jab my elbow at his stomach, making him grunt and glare at me. "Two beds please."

The lady looks up and says, "Sorry. No more rooms with two beds. They're all taken." I look at her name tag and guess what it says. Aphrodite! "Come on, Lady Aphrodite. I can't even stand this doofus and you want me to be in the same bed as him?"

"Hey! What's so bad about me?" Travis remarks. I roll my eyes and say, "Everything."

"Sorry, hon. No can do. You're stuck with it," she says, with a mischievous glint in her eyes, then says in a hushed whisper, "Don't tell anyone but... you don't need to pay." She hands us the keys to our room and winks at us.

"You're on the couch," we say simultaneously when we enter the room and run towards the queen sized bed. We arrive at the same time. "I'm _not _sharing a bed with you. And I repeat, _not," _I say, crossing my arms across my chest. "Amen to that," he mutters in response.

"Okay, how about this? I take the couch, but next time you take the couch. We'll swap each time," he suggests.

"Huh, you do have a brain," I say.

He rolls his eyes and says, "Where else do I get my prank ideas from? My butt?"

"How does that even make sense?" I ask, stifling a laugh.

He shrugs, "I have no clue. It just spilled out of my mouth."

Ten minutes later, I come out of the bathroom in a tank top and pyjama pants, to find Travis in only boxers. My eyes widen at the sight, which might I add, is really nice. I have a _fantastic _view of his back muscles and tousled straight brown hair with blonde highlights. I stare for way too long, because he notices my presence and turns around, now giving me a view of his six pack abs.

"Enjoying the view there, Kitty Kat?" he asks. I snap out of my daze and when I realise what I am doing, a blush creeps up my neck.

"Aww it's okay, Kitty Kat. You can just admit that I'm hot."

"No need to boost your ego, mister," I mutter under my breath.

"Pfft... what ego?"

"Whatever. I'm sleeping. Goodnight," I say.

"Yeah. Night." I climb into the bed and he grabs a blanket before lying on the couch. I would have fallen asleep, but unfortunately, it wasn't possible. Why? Because that idiot of a roommate keeps tossing and turning, causing the couch to squeak. Squeak! He finally lets out a groan of frustration and throws a pillow across the room.

"What?" I ask, irritated.

"This couch is so... unbouncy!"

"Unbouncy?" I ask, with an eyebrow raised and sit up.

"Seriously. This couch is literally hard and flat. If I sleep here the whole night, I won't be able to get up later. Do you want to try sleeping here? I'm going to sleep on the bed," he exclaims.

Too tired to argue any more, I roll my eyes and scoot over to the left side of the bed. "Don't pass the line."

He snorts and says, "What are you? Five?"

"I think I should be asking you that."

"Really?" he drawls.

"Shut up. I want to sleep," I say, stifling a yawn.

"And I thought guys were supposed to say that."

"Sexist much?"

"Eh," he shrugs and jumps onto the bed landing on his back with such force I fell off. "Oi!" He snickered, causing me to glare at him and he visibly shrinks back. I smirk to myself.

Score!

* * *

"Hey, Katie! Wake up!" I hear Travis shout my name. I feel someone get off the bed and some crashing sounds. I just turn over to the other side, hoping I can go back to sleep. "KATIE GET UP!" he screams at the top of his lungs.

"What?!" I scream back, my eyes still closed.

"The maid is a freaking _empousa, _now get your butt out of bed!" I look over at the clock, which says seven o'clock in the morning. Who wakes up at this time?

"I thought they were meant to be cheerleaders," I grumble.

"I don't care. Now help me," he yells. I open my eyes again to find him battling a monster with red eyes, deadly pale skin and flaming hair. When I squint my eyes, trying to get rid of my drowsiness, I notice her fangs, bronze leg and a donkey leg. Wow, Travis wasn't kidding. Suddenly, the _empousa _transformed back into her maid form. She starts batting her eyelashes at him trying to seduce him. "Now give me that kiss, baby." I can tell Travis is falling for the spell from the dazed look in his eyes and the way his actions change. He lowers his sword and starts leaning forward, extremely slowly. You'd think it was in slow motion.

The both of them don't notice me at all. I take the chance to put on more comfortable clothes for fighting. I put on a normal t-shirt, jeans and my sneakers hastily, before pulling my dagger out. "Travis! Snap out of it!" I scream, when they're only inches apart. They both jump back in surprise and the maid glares at me.

"Come on, baby. Give me that kiss." Travis leans in again, oblivious to everything else. I push him back and slap him across the face three times. "Hey, what was that for?" he asks, putting his hand up to his cheek, which has a red hand mark.

"_Empousa. _Kill. Monster."

Realisation fills his facial expression. "Oh, right. Hey, watch out behind you." He has his left arm raised, holding his sword up, poised for attack. (He's left-handed). I turn around to find the lady changing back into her true monster form. Hopefully, this isn't too hard. I replace my knife with a sword, thinking it would be much more convenient. I try slashing her neck, but she is way too fast. Instead, a bunch of hair is cut off. Travis tries sneaking behind her, but to no avail. The _empousa _used her donkey leg and kicked me right in the stomach, sending me flying and smashing into the wall and having the air knocked out of me. Ouch.

"Katie! Are you okay?" Travis shouts.

"Yeh." I get up but fall back down, breathing heavily. Man, I didn't think _empousai _were that strong. I grab a knife from my sheath and focus. Good thing I'm okay at aiming, but they are moving around too much, it's hard. What if it hits Travis? I take the risk and throw it. _Clink. _The knife rebounds off the bronze leg and oh my gods. The blade somehow flips around and the sharp side hits the side of Travis' torso. He lets out a cry of pain.

Suddenly, my breathing's back to normal. "I'm so sorry!" I apologise with wide eyes. "It's okay," he wheezes out. I want to say that it isn't okay, but the _empousa _is gaining on us.

I charge at her and fake a left, before going right. It doesn't faze her as she bares her teeth at me, threateningly. I dodge and slash and repeat, giving her cuts here and there. I pretend to be tired and place my hands on my knees staring up at her.

"Useless demigods," she sneers. "It looks like I win," she continues, triumphantly. She towers over me, smirking with bared teeth and looks at Travis. "I'll enjoy this very much," she drawls, sauntering towards Travis who is clutching to his bloody side. I get up and walk behind her quietly, stopping when she crouches down slightly. I tap my sword on her shoulder lightly and she turns around to face me.

"What?" she asks, irritated and gets up, "Don't y-"

She's cut off when I stab the sword in her chest and gold dust comes shimmering down, landing on Travis. He chokes and says, "Really? First, a knife nearly goes through me and now I'm bombarded with monster dust?"

"Travis, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do anything. It was an acci-"

"Gods, stop talking Kitty Kat. Now, could you help me? I'm literally bleeding to death."

"Oh yeah, sorry!" I run to my backpack, grabbing bandages, nectar and ambrosia.

He hisses and squirms when I pour the nectar on his gash. "Stop moving," I order. "Yes ma'am." "It's not very deep, so you should be okay. You won't need the bandage for long. Twenty four hours maximum. Get up slowly," I say when I'm done bandaging the left side of his torso.

"Thanks," he grunts, "When did you become a daughter of Apollo?"

"It's okay," I say, "And I dated Will, remember?"

"Oh, yeah." I frown when he winces in pain.

"Aww look. You do care."

"Tell anyone and I'll deny it."

"Sure. Now, I need to give you a little thank you in return," he says mysteriously. Before I can process anything, he starts leaning in and his lips meet mine for a split second. I swear, Aphrodite must have put a love spell in this room or something. When he pulls back, he acts normally. I guess he's still slightly ditzy from just then. But, whatever. I still liked it.

I pretend to act like nothing just happened. "Come on. We should go before any more monsters start attacking. I'll drive," I suggest.

He scoffs, "Do you even know how to drive?"

"No?" my response comes out more like a question.

"Whatever. But if I die, I'm blaming you." And there's the Travis that I know and... hate? No, that didn't sound right. Love? Gods, no. Like... Ehh... maybe.

* * *

**Gahh! This story is so stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid writer's block! I have a really severe case of it and I'm really pissed. It's like I have an idea and when I start writing it, it doesn't come out right. Then, when I have another idea, it still doesn't work. Ughh! I'm not very happy with this, but I have to admit, my writing skills did get better.**

**I hope you like it though. **

**Song For The Chapter: Secret by The Pierces**

**PS: GUYS! You have to read 'The Boy Who Sneaks In My Bedroom Window' by centXnumber. It's amazing. It's a Glee ****fan fiction, but it's actually based on an amazing wattpad story I read and got published. It's really really good. They just replaced the characters into Sam, Quinn, Finn, etc. READ IT! **

**READ AND REVIEW! :D **


	4. Chapter 4

**Aww.. only 5 reviews? I have one more week of school... so right now... 3 days left before two weeks of holidays! YES! I remember last holiday, I uploaded chapters nearly everyday... **

**Review Responses -**

**LazySundayGirl: Thanks for reviewing! Psh.. everyone hates writer's block. It's so frustrating. In some cases, some people have it for nearly the whole story... I've read the chapter! It's really good! :) **

**Thanks everyone for reviewing, favouriting and following and blah blah... I'm in a good mood... **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO. All rights belong to Rick Riordan! **

* * *

Thanks to my _amazing _driving skills, we arrive at Las Vegas in not even the next twenty-four hours. Travis kept shouting at me to slow down. Why? Because my driving is extremely reckless and I swerve from lane to lane, nearly killing us at times. I swear, he nearly had a heart attack, when the car skidded around a sharp corner.

"Gods, who would've thought _the _Katie Gardner could be so badass?" he mutters.

"There's a lot you don't know about me, Stoll," I retort.

"Oh, trust me. I know." I walk my way to the entrance of the hotel, with Travis trailing behind me. He's staring at the building in front of us in awe, with his eyes bright and elfish features perked up.

"Don't even think about gambling," I tell him.

"Gods, no need to be such a Debby Downer." I glare at him and he cringes under my stare, making me smirk in satisfaction.

"Hi. Would you like a Lotus flower?" a waitress in green comes up to us, offering some pink flowers that look like meringue. She throws a flirtatious wink and smile and the doofus next to me, who smirks back in return. We both take a flower and she sends us one last smile before jumping onto some others. I chuck the flower away and I turn around to see Travis holding the flower only centimetres away from his lips. I smack it out of his hands, causing it to whip past a few people's heads, narrowly missing them.

"Hey!"

"Hay is for horses," I say, jokingly.

He gives me a flat stare, "What was that for?"

I sigh, "Lotus Casino. Pink flowers. Stay here for too long. Can't complete quest. Ring a bell?"

"But it was free food!" he protested.

"There's plenty of other free food. Just don't eat the pink lotuses. Don't you know this already?" I ask, exasperated.

"Now, I do."

"Okay. Come on. We need to look for the bow," I say, "If it is here."

He sighs dramatically and salutes, "Yes, ma'am."

"You go to that side," I order, gesturing to the furthest side from where we were standing, "And I'll cover this part. I'll meet you here at the catwalk in an hour."

"Oh, and don't get too distracted," I add, knowing he would probably go off with some waitress. He walks off to the side I was pointing at and I look around for anything giving off some mysterious aura in the middle of nowhere. Nothing too suspicious...

Around a half hour later, I suddenly become aware of my growling stomach. I look around for any food stands, but if I did buy anything, it would cost a lot of mortal money which I couldn't afford. The only other food and drinks here, are the cocktails and the lotuses they give out. Eh.. why not? Just one lotus flower wouldn't hurt, right? I need to eat something to refuel my energy. I grabbed a flower from one of the flaunting waitresses and shove the whole thing in my mouth, savouring its sweet yet bitter taste. Even with its bitter taste, it's really addictive. I try to limit myself with the number of flowers I eat, but I eventually find it impossible.

My mind fuzzes and I realise I'm slowly getting brainwashed temporarily. Why am I here again? I walk around in a daze, interacting with many others. I watch people dance and grinding together. Eww...

Vibrants lights suddenly bounce and ricochet off the walls, as I enter the 'entertainment' room. In my point of view, I think the whole casino is an entertainment. But when they say entertainment, they mean catwalks, concerts and dance battles. I squint my eyes, hoping to see better and look around for Travis. Where and when were we meant to meet again? I rub my forehead in frustration and I try to remember.

I walk towards the dance battle area, watching the dancers' every move. One of them spins around on his head multiple times. Wouldn't all the blood rush to his head? I hear my name being shouted by a really familiar voice, but I can't exactly put my finger on it. I ignore it and go back to watching the dance battle, walking towards the front.

"Katie! Katie!" I don't know if this voice is just at the back of my mind or real, but all I know is that it's very persistent. I turn around and stumble into a person, and for some reason my mind plays a scene. Actually, I see everything from Percy's point of view. A scene where Percy, Annabeth and Grover were here. My mind fast forwards to the part where Percy pulls the other two out of the casino, saying something about not eating the flowers. The person helps me up and the scene's persistent calling of my name is still there. It's so annoying, I resist the urge to slap myself.

I turn around yet again and see the DJ looking down at me. He looks no older than twenty-two and has brilliant blue eyes with sandy blonde hair. He flashes a grin at me, showing his pearly white teeth. I have to admit, he's quite hot. His eyes flitter around the entire casino, as if he's looking for someone, but his gaze comes back to me. For some reason, he looks really familiar. I take a glance at his name tag and it says _Aaron. _I should've known. Apollo!

"Lord Apollo?" I shout over the loud music.

He flashes another grin and says, "Just figured? And no need with formalities, Katie."

"What are you doing here?"

"This has something to do with music and entertainment, doesn't it? Why wouldn't I be here?" he replies. He had a point there. "Oh, here's a note for you," he says, handing me a slip of paper, winks and shoos me away, "Now go find your boyfriend."

"What? I don't have a boyfriend," I say, but when I turn around he has already disappeared in a flash and some ridiculous hipster looking person has replaced him. I unfold the slip of paper and read it.

_Two weeks to complete the quest. You've already wasted the first week. _

Oh, Hades. We've spent five days in this hellhole! I push my way through the mingling crowds and look for Travis. Unfortunately, that's really difficult because all the ladies are in heels and the guys are just tall... unless they are wearing heels too. I whip my head around, looking for a mop of unruly brown hair with blonde streaks. Aha! Found him.

"Hey Travis!" I shout, when I'm within shouting distance. Oh wait a moment. He wasn't wearing a black shirt last time I saw him. The guy turned around and says, "Who's Travis?" I stare wide-eyed at him, gaping before apologising, "Sorry. Wrong person." I scurry away, hoping to find the right Travis this time.

I finally find him in the audience gathered around the catwalk. Of _course_ he would go there. He's admiring all the models' _oh-so-perfect _legs and beauty. In his hand is a lotus and once again, I slap it out of his hands. He stands there, stunned for a moment before grinning, "Hi, Katie."

"Hey, yourself. We've been here for five days," I say.

"Five days?" he asks in disbelief, "You're kidding. We've only been here for a few hours."

"No, I'm not kidding. Five days, we've been here. I just met Apollo DJ-ing and he gave me a note," I pull the slip of paper out of my pocket and show him. His eyes widen, "Oh, Zeus."

Once he says that, a flash appears behind him and we look to see what or who it is. A stunning lady with a strong aura is walking down the catwalk, obviously loving the amount of attention she's receiving. "Aphrodite," he mutters. She blows out kisses during one of her poses and out of nowhere, she produces numerous rose petals. She throws them at the crowd and everyone catches them, but for us, a note comes floating down. We look at her once, before she disappears and is replaced by someone else. The mortals seem oblivious to it.

_You don't need to look too much. You've been there before. xx_

"Where has Percy been to where we been?" I ask. "Let me rephrase that. What place have we been, that he's been too?"

"Uhh... camp?" Travis responds.

"I would've never figured that out," I say, sarcastically.

He shrugs, "It's true."

A crash is heard throughout the whole building, followed by multiple screams from both men and women. People run in and out frantically, screaming their heads off. Travis and I exchange worried glances and rush into the main foyer. We are met by three hellhounds baring their teeth at us.

"I thought monsters weren't able to come in here," I exclaim.

"Magic. Hecate must've somehow allowed them to come in here and bended the rules or something," he replies, as we dodge and slash at the beasts. Three hellhounds are pretty easy to take out. But not when you're being ambushed and nearly trampled over by people. I stumble over someone's foot and I'm sent crashing to the ground. But no, I don't kiss the ground, I land on a freaking hellhound. Man, it has a hard spinal bone. I groan in pain as it flips me over and claws at my right shoulder, causing pain to shoot through my body. I pull my dagger out with my left hand and start swaying it around like a mad woman because I'm right-handed and I have no idea how to use my left hand. I don't dare to open my eyes with the drool that's coming out of the hellhound's mouth. Gross. I don't want monster drool in my eyes. I stab at some place and the hellhound howls in pain, before I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulder. Pun intended. I wipe the monster dust off me and look to the side. Travis is battling one of the hellhounds and is gaining the upper hand. I sneak up behind it and stab it with my dagger at the back of its neck. It lets out a strangled sound, like it's dying of the lack of air and after another stab, it's gone.

After the whole running-around-and-passing-out stage, all the mortals went into the oh-my-gods-what-happened-and-starts-jumping stage. It was horrible. "Travis, we should go now before anyone notices us," I mutter, quietly.

"Yeh." We try sneaking past the guards and the workers, but it doesn't work. "Hey! You! Get back here! You don't leave the Lotus Casino like this!" I'm guessing that was the manager. We start running towards the exit. Travis makes it past the guards, but I don't. I find two bulky arms blocking my way.

"Katie, I'll run out and grab the car. Try get past them and jump in when I drive by," he shouts, before sprinting away. If he ditches me, I will track him down and kill him without hesitation.

"Excuse me, can I please get out? It's a family emergency," I say to the security guards.

"No can do, kid," the beefy dude says, standing in front of me, with his arms crossed.

_Think of something, Katie! _Got it! Silena and Piper had always told me that I was really pretty and had good looks and features. I was always really modest and always denied, when Silena asked me to do a makeover to see my 'natural beauty'. I widen my eyes and grab a lock of my long, brown hair twirling it around my fingers. "Please? My daddy's going to die." I stick my bottom lip out slightly and bat my eyelashes several times. I can't believe I am flirting with him. No offence, but he's ugly. I mean, he's big, buff and beefy! Ew! And flirting wasn't in my genes. His eyes soften and he's about to move, but a familiar black car comes screeching down the street and pulls up in front of the entrance. He puts one and one together a little too late. "Hey! Get back here!"

I sprint towards the convertible, not bothering to open the door. I just jump over the door, wincing when my right shoulder twists slightly and buckle up. Travis blinks at me, obviously surprised at my actions. "Would you go? I really don't want to be harassed by people."

"Oh, yeah sure," he says, before driving off. I lean against the door, hissing in pain when my shoulder comes in contact with it. Travis shoots me a concerned look before keeping his eyes on the road, "You okay?"

I do a one-shoulder shrug. "My shoulder's killing me. Pull up at a deserted ally," I instruct. He nods and pulls up at a dark lane. I take the jar of nectar out and hesitantly ask him, "Could you help me?"

"Sure. Come here."

"Why me? I'm the one injured here," I complain.

"Do you want me to help you or not?" he asks, raising an eyebrow and smirks. I huff and walk over to his side. I look at the wound, to find multiple claw scratches, the deepest gash going one and a half centimetres deep. I try my best not to make any noise of pain when he applies the nectar on my wound, while I nibble on a bit of ambrosia. "And.. done!" he announces, looking like he's proud of what he's done.

"Thanks," I mumble.

"No prob- uh oh." I pivot around. Oh gods, someone help us.

* * *

***throws laptop at the wall and smashes it with my foot* Ughh! I hate writer's block! So f***ing annoying! Ahem.. excuse my language. Hopefully you liked it. Pshh.. I don't even know how long it takes from Long Island to Las Vegas. I'm from Australia, how would I know these things? I don't bother researching either... so I just made it up.**

**Ahaha... cliffy.. **

**... sorry for the late upload... I'm uploading this on the day I'm not at school, because I'm sick. I've got hay fever and it's really pissing me off and once I wake up, I'm tired. Usually I would put a chapter up on Sunday's, but once I miss it, I most likely upload the next Sunday.**

**Once again, I'm not particularly impressed with this. :S**

**I'm like writing two stories at once at the moment. **

**Song For The Chapter: Blow Me One Last Kiss by Pink **

**PS: OHMYGODS! Mark of Athena is coming out in only 2 weeks! *starts ****fangirling* **

**READ AND REVIEW!**


	5. Chapter 5

**IMPORTANT AN AT THE END! This is not my week.. actually, not my fortnight. I was sick for a week, then the day after I get this killer headache and the day after I got this massive nosebleed. I didn't even know I had that much blood in me! And then, once I started writing this chapter, half of it got deleted. And you know the feeling? **

**Review Responses - **

**ToAwesomeForAName: Haha, thanks. I enjoyed writing that part. :) **

**sapphireshadow97: Hey, fellow Aussie! They did kiss in Chapter 3... well, kind of. :) **

**LazySundayGirl: Thanks! And my WB is over! Yay! You'll find out 'who' it is. :P **

**Only When I See us Laugh: I learnt the comparisons of miles and metres, but I forgot. Colds suck. It's really annoying how I blow my nose a lot and then a nosebleed comes. Anyways, thanks! :) **

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favourited and followed! :) **

**Okay! I have this new obsession with something. Guess? If you guess correct, I shall give you a virtual cookie! :DD **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO. All rights belong to Rick Riordan. **

* * *

"Where are Percy and Leo when we need them?" I complained, throwing my hands up in the air. Travis sighed, frustratingly and pulled his sword back out, poised for attack. The THIRD time a monster has come for us! I had a bruised right shoulder and Travis' torso would still hurt slightly if he moved.

He sighed, "I guess we're on our own." He glanced at me for a split second and added, "You go for the back, I'll go for the front. Try avoid the acid as best as you can. Hope your shoulder doesn't dislocated. On my count." His eyes stayed glued on the monster ahead of us, filled with determination.

"One. Two. Three. Go!"

It started advancing on us, the same time we ran forward. It hissed and thrashed around, with its monstrous body following its five hideous heads. I sprinted behind, avoiding the gas that was being spewed out of its mouths, giving me a perfect view of the numerous rows of razor sharp teeth inside. They viciously snapped their teeth together at me, as I ran past and pulled my sword out. By the time, I had reached behind it, Travis was already fending off the hydra to himself. "Hey! Stinky Breath!" I yelled. Yeah, I know it's original, but who cares?

The heads snapped to me and lunged forward, opening their mouths. I coughed violently and gagged when the odour of their breaths reached me. Sucking in a deep breath, I slashed forward, ducking and defending myself, wincing every few seconds when my shoulder moved painfully.

"Hey! Over here!" Travis yelled.

As the monster turned around, I yelled, "No! Here!" Once again, it turned back to me and Travis shouted, "Yolo!"

"Here!" I screamed. Wait a second. Did he just say 'Yolo'? Ehh.. it's Travis. He's just weird and... not normal. We continued this for a few minutes, so it was basically just a shouting competition between us, with the monster in the middle moving its head back and forth trying to figure out who to go after. I had to say, it's a great plan that we just came out with, without talking about it.

Then, Travis charged, causing me to as well. The hydra decided to face me, probably because it was thinking, _'Oh. It's just a girl. She'll be easier to finish off. We can finish the Hermes kid later.'_

Oh, wait. Monsters don't think. And apparently, neither does Travis. He decided to 'come to my rescue' and chopped a head off!

"No!" I screamed at him, as I saw the veins spilling out of it's neck. I grimaced at the sight of two heads spurting out. "Oops," he muttered. I glared at him and yelled, "You idiot! If you want to chop its head off, only do that to burn the stumps."

"Burn? Oh, I have matches in my bag," he said. If I wasn't fighting, I would've turned around slowly. "You couldn't have said that before?" I said, through gritted teeth.

"No? You never asked," he defended himself.

"What did you think I meant by, 'When's Leo when we need him?' huh? To hot-wire a car? To smash its head flat with a hammer?"

"Why would we need him for that? I know how to hot-wire a car."

"That's not the point! Would you go get the matches? I'll take care of this," I said and added '_Hopefully' _mentally. "But be quick! I can't do this forever." He came back with a box of matches and asked me what to do.

"Okay. I'll distract. You cut the heads off and quickly burn the stump. And cut them all off at once. I'll help you," I said, before going into yet another coughing fit. "Now!" We chopped the heads off like maniacs, you'd think we were serial murderers or something. Burning the stumps. I did not like that one bit. Why? Because there were blue veins sticking out, writhing everywhere. Eww. I breathed out a sigh of relief when gold dust replaced the monster. "Now, we have to Iris Message Annabeth," I stated.

Travis groaned and slumped into the driver seat, "Don't we get a break?"

"Apparently, no. Now give me a water bottle." He tossed me one and I grabbed a drachma from my bag. I was about to spill the water in a puddle, but an Iris Message appeared in front of me. "Hi!"

I looked up and saw Connor. "Hey."

"Wow. You look horrible."

"Gee, thanks," I said, sarcastically.

"Soo... how's my brother? Where are you? How are you guys? Are you two hurt? Have you ripped his throat out yet?" Questions spewed out of his mouth like lava spilling out of a volcano. "Good. Somewhere in Vegas. Good. Kind of. Not yet," I replied.

He stared at me blankly before letting out a, "Huh?" I rolled my eyes and said, "Never mind. Why did you IM me?"

"Just wanted to see how my brother and his crush were," he stated, as if everything was normal. Did I ever mention that he was a horrible actor? Yeah, something fishy was up. "Anything you need to tell me?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Nope," he replied a little too fast. "Where's my brother?"

"In the car. Too lazy to come out," I said, pointing to my right.

"I'm right here," Travis said, coming from behind me. "Hey, bro!"

"Sup?"

He shrugged, "You know, the normal. Being attacked."

"Connor! Stop talking to the lovebirds and get your butt over here!" I heard the familiar voice of one of my best friends. My eyebrows furrowed, "Lovebirds?" Connor looked at us and around, "Uhh.. what lovebirds? No lovebirds." He hastily wave his hand and he was gone in an instant.

"Stupid brother," I heard Travis mutter. "Come on. IM Annabeth. We don't need anymore monsters jumping on us."

I poured half the bottle out and threw a drachma in. "Oh, Iris, goddess of the rainbow. Accept my offering. Show Annabeth Chase in.. Camp Half-Blood."

"Hey!" I yelled, when she appeared in front of us.

"Hey guys! I Iris Messaged you about five minutes ago and I saw you fighting the hydra, but then it swiped its head in front of the message somehow. Are you okay?" she asked, looking at us up and down in concern.

"We're okay... I guess."

"How did you guys kill the hydra? You need fire."

"This doofus had matches."

"Hey!" he protested. "You're lucky I even had matches! If I didn't you would've been dead."

"But I'm not," I replied, smartly.

"What do you need help with?" Annabeth asked us, as if she knew we were going to ask for her help.

I sighed. "We were stuck in the Lotus Casino for five days. Then Apollo gave me a note saying that we had two weeks to complete the entire quest and we had already wasted a week. Then Aphrodite gave us a note saying we didn't need to look much. We've been there before. Where have we been that Percy has also been?"

She had her thinking face on as we waited for her response. "Try New York, mainly Manhattan. You guys helped with the battle." She frowned even more as she thought even harder, "Try searching all of Manhattan. But that's a large city, so let's be more specific here," she said, like she was talking to herself. "Hmm.. probably try Goode High and if you get homework, don't do it. And-"

"Did you just say don't do the homework?" Travis asked, incredulously.

Annabeth rolled her grey eyes and said, "You don't have that much time. What if the bow isn't it Manhattan? Anyways, as I was saying don't do any homework. Stay there for one day and search the entire school. Use the Mist to manipulate their minds, so they didn't know you were at the school later. Two days maximum. Then, search where we had the battle against Kronos. It could be anywhere in Manhattan. I don't think there's anywhere else that both you guys and Percy have been."

"Thanks Annabeth," we said, simultaneously.

"No problem. Bye! Good luck," she gave us one last smile before waving a hand through the Mist.

I sighed, "So we're driving back?"

"Yep... And I'm driving!" he yelled, as he ran to the driver's seat.

"Whatever," I muttered, trudging to the car.

* * *

"Why do we have to go to school?"

"Would you quit whining? It's already bad that I have to go on a quest with you," I grumbled, tying my hair up into a low side ponytail. "Sheesh, someone's on their monthly," he muttered.

I turned around and glared at him. "Don't joke about a girl's monthly. Let's just go." I grabbed a hold of his wrist and dragged him out the door with me. "Dude, we need to lock the door," he said.

"I'm not a dude."

"Whatever." He locked the door and followed me to the school, which was, believe it or not, just around the corner.

"And who are you?" came the bored voice of the secretary. I looked up at her to find a really old plump lady, with glasses on the tip of her nose and she was gazing at us over the rim of her glasses.

"I'm Katie Gardner and this is Travis Stoll. We're new," I stated, with a slightly snobby attitude.

"Here. Now go. I have some business to do," she shooed us out.

"Well, she was nice," Travis mumbled.

"I heard that," she said in the same bored tone. "God, teenagers have no respect for others these days."

"Does Mr. Burner sound familiar?" he asked, looking at his timetable and squinted trying to read the words with his dyslexia.

I squinted at mine. "It says Mr. Nurber."

"No. It doesn't. Where'd you get that from? Wait.. it says Mr. Brunner."

"That does sound familiar."

"Katie! Travis!" We whipped our heads around to find Percy and Grover walking towards us. "Hey," I greeted.

"How come you say Katie first?" Travis whined.

"Ladies first," I piped up. "What are you two doing here?"

"Uhh.. I'm here to look for more demigods. And Percy's here for school. He graduates in two weeks," Grover said.

"Ohh.. but you were at camp," Travis started, and counted on his fingers, "One week ago."

"I was visiting," he replied, with a glint in his eye and smirked slightly.

"Whos' Mr. Brunner?" Travis asked.

"Greek Mythology teacher."

"Aren't you guys meant to be on a quest?" Grover asked.

"Yeh, but remember the line that said something about going where the hero has been? And it has to be somewhere that we've been too. So Manhattan was the only answer to it," I explained.

"I'm sorry, what? You lost me at remember," Percy said, dumbly.

I rolled my eyes and sighed, "Never mind."

* * *

"Hey Chiron," Travis and I both greeted when we entered the classroom, but stopped in our tracks to turn around within seconds. "Wait! Chiron?"

He smiled warmly at us, "Hello children. But if you don't mind, call me Mr. Brunner in class, not Chiron." His voice became a hushed whisper at the end. We nodded and sat in the seats near the front of the class. As soon as the rest of the class settled down, Chiron ordered, "Today, we will do a test. Travis and Katie, you'll just be reading from a Greek book." Because of this, everyone groaned.

Travis nudged me sometime during the lesson and gestured at the picture of Chiron in the book, before pointing at the teacher in front of us. I just had to laugh. I put my hand over my mouth to stifle it, so I wouldn't catch any attention. Travis snickered beside me and started tapping his pen on the table. "Would you stop tapping?" I hissed. He smirked at me and continued tapping, making a bigger racket.

Marine biology. A teacher with jet black hair. A teacher with deep sea green eyes. A teacher who looked exactly like an older version of the Percy Jackson. Yup, Lord Poseidon. Once we did the slightest move to bow down, he pulled us back up. "Not to be rude, but what are you doing here?" Travis asked.

"They needed a substitute. I am the sea god, aren't I?" he replied, in a relaxed tone. "And I wanted to see how Percy, his mother and Blowfish were doing."

"Blowfish? I thought it was Blofis," I said, confused.

"Really? Huh."

A knock on the door brought me out of my dreamland and Travis seemed to be more interested. It was obvious since his tapping stopped. I turned to him, to find his eyebrows furrowed in the middle like he as thinking really hard. He looked really cute. Uhh.. let's take that back. My eyes followed his gaze and found someone who looked exactly like him, but older. Hermes. What was with all the gods showing up?

"Katie, Travis. Here's a note for you," he said with a wink, before flashing out like nothing was out of the ordinary. I exchanged glances with Travis. "Is it me or does it seem like people are trying to hide something from us two?" he asked curiously.

"So, you think that too, huh? I'm starting to find it really creepy," I replied. Lord Poseidon or 'Mr P.' handed us the note with a wink, much like Hermes had done.

_Don't bother looking in the school. It's not here. _

I turned the slip over.

_Isn't it obvious? What's famous in Manhattan, or better yet New York? _

We turned to face each other again, as if we both knew what we were thinking. "Empire State Building?" I asked in a hushed whisper, the same time he whispered, "Olympus?"

* * *

**Apparently, hydras spew out venomous gas and acid, not fire. They just did that in the movie. Not my best chapter again... :S I realised that a lot of the chapter is being attacked by the hydra. **

**Anyways, sorry for the wait. I just haven't been on the computer for more than half a week. And I've got a LOT of stuff to do. You don't even want to know. ****:S I don't know how I even lived through that. I hoped you liked it though!**

**Song For The Chapter: Everybody Talks by Neon Trees**

**PLEASE READ THIS! I decided to change the plot - kind of. At first, this was just meant to be the quest, but I decided to change it! Katie and Travis were originally meant to get together DURING the quest, but not anymore. I'M GOING TO CHANGE THE SUMMARY! Thanks for reading this! :P **

**PS: The thing I'm obsessed with? Yeh, it's a TV show. :)**

**PPS: Ian Somerhalder is so HOTT! Ian and Nina Dobrev are the CUTEST couple ever! :D**

**PPPS: This is NOT edited. **

**READ AND REVIEW! :DDDDD**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey my peeps! I watched two seasons of The Vampire Diaries in three days... Is that normal? **

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**Come on. Only 4 reviews? I know I had like 20 people following and favouriting since the previous chapter. So many ghost readers out there...**

******Anyways, I'm competing in this art competition. Wish me luck!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO. All rights belong to Rick Riordan. **

* * *

I shot my hand up, gaining 'Mr P.' and the class's attention. "Yes, Miss Gardner?" Poseidon asked with a raised eyebrow.

"May Travis and I leave? We have some... stuff to do," I said. The class snickered at my words and I realised what I had just said. Gods.. people have such perverted minds these days. It's annoying sometimes.

He smirked at us and said, "Yes." We packed our belongings, ignoring the wolf whistles some obnoxious guys were giving. Even Travis wasn't like that. Hey, I found a good trait about him! Poseidon snapped his fingers together and muttered, "Katie Gardner and Travis Stoll were never here." Just like expected, everyone else went back to their work like nobody had interrupted. "Again with saying Katie first instead of Travis," Travis grumbled and nobody apart from Poseidon and I heard. The god standing at the front of the room chuckled in amusement, while I smirked.

"Bye, Lord Poseidon," we chorused as we exited out the door. I noticed a tall, lanky guy with piercing green eyes sitting in the front of our class, eyeing us curiously, like we were hiding something. Well, we were, but nobody was meant to know. Then, looking more closely, I found one eye instead of two. Hopefully this was a 'good' Cyclops like Tyson.

"Hey, did you see that guy?" Travis asked, "He was giving me the creeps."

"He's a Cyclops. Don't be too suspicious," I muttered in response. "Oooookay, then," he said, drawling out the 'o' in okay and started whistling. Oh yeah, so not suspicious at all...

"Way to not be suspicious," I hissed at him and covered his mouth with my hand, muffling his whistles. I felt something warm and moist lick my hand and I pulled it away, wiping it on my shirt. "Eww! Gross." Travis just smirked at me. I could hear footsteps coming behind us from a distance and I knew it was the Cyclops dude.

"Okay. Play the innocent act. We are not demigods and nothing happened just then," I muttered under my breath.

"Gotcha."

I looked down at the ground and instead of finding two shadows the size of humans, but a large clump as a shadow. I stopped in my tracks and slowly turned around to come face to chest with the Cyclops. "Hi, I'm Jack," he introduced himself, still eyeing us like we were meat or something. I exchanged glances with Travis and slowly said, "Hi. May we help you?" He frowned at us slightly and murmured, "No, it's okay," before walking back to class.

"Well, that was weird." I couldn't help but agree more.

* * *

We literally flipped the whole bottom floor upside down. We ignored all the screams and protests coming from the receptionists and public and continued looking for the bow. Not in the waiting area. We walked to the elevators and the man guarding it raised a bored eyebrow at us. "What?"

"Key to the 600th floor," Travis beat me to the chase.

"No can do, sir. No 600th floor," he stated, monotonically.

"Key to the 600th floor please," Travis repeated, raising his eyebrows as if daring him to say no.

"Sorry sir, there is no 600th floor," he repeated slowly, like he was talking to pre-schoolers.

"Just give us the key," he snapped.

"What key?"

I was tired of this game. I whipped a dagger out of my sheath and twirled it around. "Then I guess you wouldn't mind if... oh, I don't know." I held onto my dagger, placing it an inch away from his neck. His eyes widened with fear and he stuttered out, "H-here's t-the k-k-ke-key."

"Thank you." We entered the lift and pressed the number 600 as we turned the key in the slot. Due to my ADHD, I tapped my foot impatiently on the floor. "Stop that," Travis ordered. I stopped, but my fingers started tapping to their own accord. We stopped at the twenty-third level and someone else came it in. I looked at her with wide eyes and my tapping stopped. We arrived at the highest level (apart from 600th) and the lady went out, but not before turning back and saying, "This is the last level, kiddos."

"Oh, really?" Travis said, laughing nervously, "You know us teens, we're trying to run away from something, so we're going up and down in the lifts." Nice save, Travis, nice save. As soon as the doors closed, 'Baby' by Justin Bieber decided to come up. "Apollo should have better elevator music," I muttered.

"No kidding." We heard a 'ding' and the doors opened. One glance and our eyes were as wide as saucers. Whoa, Annabeth's designing was amazing! It could've been heaven, if it wasn't filled with statues of naked gods... Disturbing, much? There were mostly statues of Apollo and Aphrodite. Figures.

"Whoa," Travis breathed out.

"I know," I agreed. "Okay, back to the bow. How are we going to find it here?"

He shrugged, "I don't know. I would flip everything upside down like down in the lobby, but I'm sure I would get an eternal punishment for that."

"Okay. You go left, I go right. Meet back here when we're done."

"Got it," he said and we separated ways.

It was exhausting. And exhausting was an understatement. I had to look underneath pedestals, try and see high above and search in nooks and crannies for an object with a godly aura around it. And there were some parts of the gods I did NOT want to see. I was mentally scarred for life. I would never look at the gods the same way ever again. It took hours.

"Katie?! You done?" Travis yelled and his voice ricocheted off the walls and echoed. "Yeh!" I yelled back. I. Found. Nothing. I ran back to where we had started off and saw him leaning against the wall, looking like a model who had just walked out of a Bonds poster. Wait, what? I shook my head to get rid of all these thoughts and walked up to him. "You didn't find it either, huh?" he asked. I shook my head and a bright flash appeared in front of us. We found a beautiful goddess in front of us with kaleidoscope eyes and her hairstyle seemed to change from time to time. We immediately went down to one knee and bowed down to her, showing our full respect.

"Hello, Travis. Katie," she said, with a warm smile.

"Ha! You said Travis first," the idiot himself exclaimed. I shot him an annoyed glance and turned my attention back to Aphrodite. That's when I realised that she was carrying the bow. Oh, come _on_! This was a set-up, wasn't it? No. No questioning there. I _know _it was a set-up. These gods and goddesses had evil, twisted minds. Travis' eyes landed on the godly object too. His eyes widened and stuttered out, "Y-you... but... wha?... how?"

He pointed an accusing finger at her and said, "You set us up, didn't you?"

The goddess in front of us just said, "No. I actually found it along the way, so Hermes had to give you that note. I just wanted to see the chemistry between you two."

"What chemistry?" I blurted out. I tried being smart and added, "This isn't science."

She laughed lightly and smirked, "Of course not. You _know _what chemistry I'm talking about." Seriously, what chemistry? All we ever did was argue. You call that chemistry? "Now, do you want to complete this quest?" she asked us, raising an eyebrow at us.

"Yes," we chorused.

"Mkay. But.." Oh, no. "You have to kiss each other first and I'll give it to you," she completed her sentence, grinning like a Cheshire cat and bounced on the heels of her shoes.

"What?" we exclaimed. "No way." We turned to each other and shouted, "Stop copying me! Me? No, you stop!"

Aphrodite let out a giggle and sighed dreamily, "You two are so cute and adorable."

"What?"

"Will you just give us the bow?" I asked, exasperated.

"Not so fast, Katie. Want the bow? Kiss," she ordered. She place her hands on her hips and watched us. When nothing happened she said, "Well, go on."

"I'm not going to - "I started shouting at her, but was cut off by guess who's lips? That's right, Travis _freaking _Stoll. I swear, there will be a day where I murder him. But let's forget about that right now. His _lips_ were _on _mine. If this was a week ago, I would've slapped someone for saying that we were kissing, but now? Not so much. Let me find the best way to describe what was happening right now. You know, in those movies like they have Disney, where the girl and her 'Prince Charming' kiss and then the screen goes black apart from them and fireworks explode? Yeah, it may sound extremely cliche and corny, but that was happening right here, right now. However, there were many differences - this was not a fairytale; Travis is definitely _not _my Prince Charming and this was definitely not romantic. No that I cared much.

I found it really surprising that I had actually responded with the kiss, something that wouldn't have happened in a million years, if this was a week ago either. But this quest had brought us closer (well, kind of.. at least, I could stand him) and I didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. What else couldn't I decide? Whether me liking kissing him was a good or bad thing. Everything was confusing these days. I pulled away from when I finally realised that we had an... audience. I removed my arms from around his neck and they dropped to my sides limply. Once I caught sight of Aphrodite's face, I found a sudden interest in my shoes as my face grew a beet red.

The love goddess was bouncing up and down in her heels. Her eyes were wide, gleaming with adoration, ecstasy and excitement. What was so exciting about that? She looked like she wanted to scream. I stole a glance at Travis to find him doing the same as me. Our eyes locked for a split second before we looked back to our shoes. Talk about awkward..

That's when Aphrodite let out the most massive squeal of all time. I think it was louder than the times 'Percabeth', 'Pipeo' and 'Thalico' got together. Each time her squeals grew louder and more shrilly, so I'm guessing it was because of more 'practice'. I'm pretty sure you all know how Percy and Annabeth got together. Clarisse and others dumped them in a lake, they kissed, blah blah blah. Pipeo. During the war with Gaea, Jason and Piper had become an item, but when it was over, the son of Jupiter left, claiming that he loved Reyna instead, leaving a very heartbroken Piper behind. Flaming Valdez was the main one who was comforting her and apparently he had liked her ages before Jason appeared and somehow Piper started falling for him, which ended up with a _very _excited mother of hers. Thalico... hmm.. interesting story. Thalia quit the Hunters because she wanted to 'live her life' instead of being half-immortal, stuck hunting monsters and what not. She said that the main reason she joined them was to give the gods more time for the Great Prophecy. So she was one day from sixteen and Nico was nearly sixteen too. So, I'm sure you can put one and one together.

Back to the present, we were still stuck in Olympus, waiting for Aphrodite to stop squealing. Man, she had strong vocals. Even stronger than Apollo. She started doing some ridiculous dance, which I'm guessing was her happy dance. Next to me, Travis snickered, trying to cover it up with his hand. Aphrodite stopped and narrowed her eyes at him, "Are you laughing at me?"

He covered his laugh up into a cough and said, "No, ma'am."

"Good. Okay, here's the bow," she said and gave it over, "Bye, my lovelies." She flashed out with a pop and another godly presence was in the room, but not as powerful as hers. "Ughh... what do we do with this?" I asked, looking at the object in my hand.

"No idea."

"Ah! You two must be Katie Gardner and Travis Stoll!" a cheery, unfamiliar voice came. We turned around, to find a god sauntering towards us. He looked... hot, cute and beautiful all at once if that was possible - like a male version of Aphrodite. This must be Eros.

I bowed down to him and Travis followed my example in confusion. "No need with the formalities, young demigod. As you probably know, I'm Eros, son of Aphrodite and Ares. I see you've .. uhh.. retrieved my bow," he said, with a smirk plastered on his face.

"Yeah, umm.. here," I stuttered, giving him his possession back.

"Thank you. Now, as for your prize... you'll receive it once I flash out, which should be now," he said. Right on cue, he flashed out and do you want to guess what our 'prize' was?

I looked down at myself in horror and shrieked, "Why in the name of Hades am I in a _dress__? A pink dress?" _

Travis scoffed at me, "You? What about _me?" _

I looked down at him and laughed. He was in a neon green shirt with black stripes on it, white pants and neon pink suspenders. Another god and goddess flashed in the room. Our parents. We knelt down in front of them, trying our best not to scowl. "Stand."

Hermes took one look at us and started laughing (the whole rolling on the floor and tears streaming down concept). Even my mother laughed! I stayed there, silently fuming along with Travis. "You done there?" he asked, through gritted teeth.

"Now, now. Is that any way to speak to your father?" Hermes said, extremely amused, with his face red from laughter. In his present form, he didn't look like a father - maybe for a two year old, but not an eighteen year old. But he was a god.

"Sorry," Travis muttered.

"Katie, I need to speak to you in private and Travis, your father wants to talk to you. We'll go to our separate places," my mother stated and flashed the two of us to some unknown place in Olympus. We appeared in what I assumed her room or should I say palace. We were actually in the kitchen, but it might as well have been three bedrooms combined. "Sit." I sat down on a seat, finding this extremely awkward. She shoved a bowl, spoon, a carton of milk and a packet of cereal in front of my face. "Katie. You need more cereal," she commented.

"Mum, I eat cereal everyday," I replied, slightly uncomfortable.

"Not enough. You need to eat cereal several times a day," she ordered and the mumbled, "That son of Hermes needs to as well... oh, and that Hades spawn."

I poured the cold milk out into the bowl and the cereal next. I ate uncomfortably as my mother watched me eat like a hawk. "What did you need to tell me?" I asked.

"We'll talk about that next. First I want to talk about you and that Hermes kid." I choked on the cereal and my face turned red, for the... millionth time today. "Nothing," I said, a little too quickly.

She gave me a small smile, "Don't say nothing. We saw what happened with Aphrodite on Hephaestus TV. I have to say, with the TV, life as a god is much more interesting."

"You watched us?" I screeched, my face become even redder.

"Yes. We watch everyone and everything. We watched your entire quest. Aphrodite made a channel called 'Tratie'. I wasn't very.. supportive of it, but I soon agreed, because most others did."

"What's Tratie?" I asked.

"Your couple name with Travis. You know, Travis and Katie? The two names together? Tratie?"

I groaned. We had a couple name? We weren't even a couple. "We're not together."

"I know. But you say it like you're sad about it."

I groaned again. "You're starting to become Aphrodite."

She frowned slightly, "I know. I should stop hanging out near her so often. But no one needs to be Aphrodite to see that you two like each other."

"What? I don't like him," I denied. She cocked an eyebrow and the corner of her lips tugged up in amusement. "Okay.. maybe a little bit," I admitted.

"You know, you like him more than that. Even Ares figured that out and he's hopeless."

She continued on, "If you're wondering, I'm not against this, because I know you'll be happy with him. I can just feel it."

Well, this was... beyond awkward. Talking to my mum about boys as our first subject. "So what was the next thing you wanted to talk about?" I repeated.

"Oh, that." Her face became grim and serious, something only Zeus and Hades could pull off the best. "I can't tell you much, but Zeus has ordered Hermes and I to tell you two. This quest you just completed is just the beginning of.. something, Katie. Something else will come up, I can't tell you what it is, otherwise that's too much information. Apollo had a vision and it's extremely bad. Once again, us gods may be wiped out. But for us to survive, it depends on you demigods. Especially you and Travis. Which is why I'm trusting you two together. One reason for your quest was because Aphrodite wanted you guys to get together, but that didn't happen. The other reason was to bring you closer for the... future. It's extremely important you don't mess anything up, Katie. I don't know what's worse - the titan and giant wars or this... well, probably the others, but this is still bad. That's all I can tell you child."

I sunk all that information in... So, Travis and I were important for this... that's Percy and Annabeth's job! "I'm guessing you want to get out of that horrid dress?" my mother asked, amused.

"Yes, please. I'd do anything to get out of these stupid heels and the dress," I grumbled, still thinking about the information I'd been given. Next thing I knew, was that I was in Aphrodite's department. I noticed that Travis and Hermes were there too. Travis also seemed deep in thought. Aphrodite sighed deeply, "I'm guessing you want different clothes?" It was like she was sad about that.

"Yes!" we both screamed. She sighed again and snapped her fingers. Our clothes weren't the ones we were wearing before. They were fashionable, yet comfortable. I was wearing a white flowing blouse with jeggings and combat boots, while Travis was wearing Nike sneakers, jeans and a loose black tee. "Thank you!" he exclaimed, "No neon clothing!"

I snickered at the mental picture of him in his previous outfit. He sent me a glare and our parents stood up. "Remember, you two. Think about it," Hermes ordered and I swear he sent me a wink, before we were transported back to camp.

We found ourselves in the dining pavilion where everyone was having lunch. And we were standing on the table? "What the? Why are we on the Hades table?" I asked in confusion.

Nico and Thalia looked up at us (Chiron was slack when it wasn't the summer, since most people aren't here) in confusion. "How did you guys get there?"

"That's what we were asking," Travis replied.

"How was the quest?" Thalia asked, with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Good.. I guess," I replied. Apparently, a lot of people wanted to know how our 'adventure' was. I swear, it's like they were all behind this.. but then they could've been.

* * *

**This is like the longest chapter I've ever written in a day! **

**Okay. I have no idea how the 600th floor key thing works, I just made it up. Anyways... MARK OF ATHENA IS OUT, BABY! Has anyone completed reading it already?**

**Damn Rick, for the cliffhanger... again. :l**

**Song for the Chapter: _Live While We're Young by One Direction _:P**

**Okay. To just clear things up, the quest was just to bring them closer.. but not because Aphrodite and Eros want them to be closer... Well, that's one reason, but there's another reason... :P **

**_GOOD NEWS!_ I have a _brilliant _idea for the future stuff in this story. Keep reading and you'll find out (may take a while though). I might have to change the summary a few times later though.**

**... **_**More reviews? I only got 4! **_

**READ AND REVIEW! **


	7. Chapter 7

**Heeyyy! How's life? School? Home?**

**Review Response - **

**PurpleQueen981: Aww.. thanks! :) Tratie's the best! I mean, how can you resist a love-hate relationship? Hehe kind of. Some of the songs are ultra old :) **

**I've been so tired this week and it's the first week back to school. I can barely keep my eyes open.. -.- **

**WHO'S READ MOA? UGHH CLIFFHANGER! I have two hundred more pages to read. TEAM LEO! xD**

**Soo... tired...**

**I have a really important AN at the end, that you NEED to read. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO. All rights belong to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

"Travis _freaking _Stoll! Get your butt here and face me like a man!" I shrieked. I was dripping with honey and there were hundreds and thousands in the honey. That son of Hermes actually had the nerve to come into my cabin while everyone was asleep and while the harpies were out. He had the nerve to place a bucket of hundreds and thousands in honey above my head and attach a string to it, so when I put my foot down and stepped on it, it came pouring down on me. That was a _wonderful _wake up call. I didn't care that I was in a white tank top and really short shorts, I just wanted to find _him. _I found him talking to Percy.. well, more like hiding behind him, once he saw me. Percy just kept smirking and stepped away from him, revealing the cowering 'man' behind.

"And I thought you were my friend," Travis grumbled.

"What friend?" Percy asked, rolling his eyes.

"TRAVIS MARTIN STOLL!" I screamed, storming over to him. "Uh-oh, she used the middle name," Percy muttered and patted him on the back, "You're on your own, buddy."

I stopped right in front of him, so we were face to face. He tilted his head to the side and cockily said, "Aww... I knew you wanted me and my butt, Kitty-Kat. By the way, love the new look." I looked down at myself. I was covered in honey! What so lovely about that? Nothing! But then I realised my top was white... and it was drenched... with honey...

When my expression didn't change and he noticed the sword in my hand, he tried defending himself, "It wasn't me! It was Connor!"

"That's bull! Connor's in the infirmary because of your prank with the Ares cabin!" I stated. It was true. The two of them had filled the Ares with Barbie and Bratz dolls everywhere. And you probably know what the others did. His eyes widened, as if he just realised that his brother wasn't here and ran off hastily away from me. I chased after him, holding my sword up menacingly, hoping I could reach him. Connor was the main one I usually caught, because he was a slower runner. Curse Travis for being such a fast runner! "I hate you, Stoll!" I screamed. And that was a lie. I didn't hate him.. I liked him, but I wouldn't admit it.

"I love you too, Katie!" he yelled, turning back, whilst running. Eventually, he just teleported away. Yes, he can teleport. Lord Hermes had granted Connor, Travis, Chris and the others who fought in the Titan War, the ability to teleport. It annoyed me a lot. Life was so much more easier without it, because that way, I would've been able to catch him. I trudged back to my cabin, taking an extra long shower to get rid of all the yuck and stickiness off of me. It was getting incredibly uncomfortable. Oh, how I loved showers. My mind reeled back to what had happened. He said he loved me.. was that a joke or not?

Throughout the whole day, everyone was talking about the whole Fourth of July thing. What was so good about it? We just had dates and watched fireworks. That sounded like a bore to me. A million guys had asked me out today and I wasn't even a stupid daughter of Aphrodite (don't tell them I said that). It was so frustrating. I sliced and hacked at dummies to release all my emotions - anger (towards Travis, for this morning), irritation (because of love, Aphrodite, boys and my feelings for Travis), confusion (because of my mixed emotions and feelings for Travis) and just everything. Notice how they all involve a certain Stoll? Huh... maybe I really should've joined the Hunters instead of declining that offer. That would have made my life a lot more simple. But then again... it would be boring to just hunt around for the rest of your life, looking for wild animals and monsters to kill. Plus, Aphrodite would kill me, now that she had a 'Tratie' channel. Where did she even get that from?

For some reason that was unknown to me, I actually _really _wanted to the fireworks with Travis. I didn't know why, but I just wanted to.

I spun around and kicked the dummy square in the chest, causing it to fall over and I moved onto the next one. With each thrust of my sword, I muttered, "Stupid Travis. Stupid boys. Stupid feelings. Stupid.. love... Stupid.. Aphrodite.." The thunder rumbled above me, giving me a warning. "Sorry, Aphrodite," I mumbled, not really meaning it.

I was so into it, I didn't notice a certain someone enter the arena and watch me. He was leaning up against the wall, casually watching me like it was completely normal. He seemed to be deep in thought about something. Huh..

* * *

**Travis' POV **

I crept into the sword-fighting arena with my awesome ninja skills, already knowing that Katie was there. Throughout the whole day, random guys had been asking her out to the fireworks, causing jealousy and envy to seep through me. Fortunately, for me, she declined all the offers and requests, and that ended up with a million broken hearted boys, who went scurrying away to save themselves from their embarrassment.

"Stupid Travis. Stupid boys. Stupids feelings. Stupid.. love.. Stupid.. Aphrodite," she muttered, along with each thrust of her sword into the dummies' bodies and chests. I would not want to be one of those. The thunder rumbled ahead and she mumbled an apology to the love goddess. I leaned against the wall casually, arms crossed against my chest, and my left leg crossed over my right. I watched her move and in my opinion, she was like an angel who had just fallen down from the heavens, even though she was angry and fighting. Even when she was infuriated with me (after pranks, stealing from her and what not) she was, as corny as it sounded, was still the most beautiful woman in the world. (Note how I used the word woman, not word?) She was gorgeous, stunning, breath-taking, you name it. The beautiful straight light brown hair of hers that framed her face perfectly, her bright green eyes that lightened up vividly occasionally, her angelic face with her defined cheekbones, her smooth long legs and her body figure. Yes, I had a teeny crush on her... Okay, maybe I loved her. But who cares? She'll never love me back, but I knew it wasn't just an infatuation or obsession.

She might have been wearing her armour, but it still clearly defined her feminine figure. I could see the perfect curves of her small, petite waist through the armour. I snapped out of my dream Katie-land when she had finished up all the dummies. She blew a long breath out, blowing the hair out of her eyes and brushed her hair back, so it was cascading down her back. She turned around and froze when she spotted me leaning against the doors. "How long have you been here?"

I smirked, "What would you say.. if I said... since you started saying, 'Stupid Travis. Stupid boys,'?"

"Oh," she mumbled.

"Hey, you want to sword-fight? I need to release some... emotions too," I suggested. What I said was actually true. I needed release my frustration, annoyance and jealousy out of my system, so I was cool and lax once again. She shrugged, "Sure. Just give me a minute to catch my breath." She grabbed her bottle of water and chugged it all down in one gulp.

The doors opened and in came Sam, a son of Aphrodite, and I was pretty sure, it was to ask Katie out. He smiled flirtatiously at her and said, "Hey, Katie. I was wondering.. would you like to go to the fireworks with me?"

I clenched my fists and I felt my jaw tighten. Katie looked at him and smiled a forced smile, "Hey Sam. Uhh.. sorry I can't go with you. Someone already asked me." What?! She was actually going with someone? I lost my chance! Screw whoever asked her out.

"Oh, well really? That's too bad. But, I could change your mind," he winked at her. My left eye twitched. Nobody flirts with _my _Katie.. well, except for me. He raised his hand and touched her shoulder and exclaimed, "Eww! You're all sweaty! That's so gross!"

I snorted and couldn't help but to start laughing. He sounded so much like a girl.. but then again, he was a son of _Aphrodite. _"Uhh.. I've been training," Katie replied. "And no, you can't make me change my mind. So go." He left simply, obviously down that he had been rejected. Not used to being said no to, huh?

"You ready?" I asked. Now, I _really _needed to release my emotions.

"Yeah." I grabbed my 'phone' out of my pocket and pressed number one, transforming it into a sword. My father had given this to me, and if I pressed a number, a different item would come up. (1. Sword; 2. Dagger; 3. Spear; 4. Shield; 5. Small knife; 6. Gladius; 7. Bows and arrows; 8. Quill; 9. Greek fire; 0. Back to normal)

"You ready for this?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, hell yes. Come at me, bro," she said and I did. I striked at her, but she went into defensive mode, while I went to offence. She blocked, as I thrusted and it was basically a pattern. After a while, it was vice versa. She was really hard to keep up with in her 'angry, foul' mood. Otherwise, our skills and knowledge were at similar standards. But then, I decided to go all beast on her. I started spinning around with my sword in the air, screaming like a madman, who was running away from a Chimera. She stopped fighting and stood there staring at me, like I had grown two heads. Well, I would be like that too if she was the one doing that.

"Stop messing around, Travis," she yelled, extremely frustrated, "I want to beat you, so get here." I resisted the urge to laugh as she just stared at me with a dumbfounded expression. I grinned internally as I lunged forward at her, taking her by surprise and she lost her balance. I used that disarming trick the Luke had once taught Percy and her sword fell onto the ground with a clatter. Her eyes widened when she realised what my plan was, but she was a little too late. I disarmed her of her dagger, which she had just awkwardly pulled out and within a split second, my sword was at her neck and I had her held up against the wall.

I smirked cockily and triumphantly said, "I win." It was only now, that I noticed that the sword-fighting arena was completely silent, apart from our pants.

She huffed and admitted, reluctantly, "Yes, you do."

I leaned in to whisper to her, "Meet me at the lake after dinner." I could feel her shiver and smiled in victory. I sauntered out of the arena, leaving her standing there, shocked. Time to get my plan to action.

* * *

I took a deep breath and shook my head.

"Confident. Romantic. And stay awesome, got it?" Connor said, as I tried to keep my cool.

"Confident. Romantic. And stay awesome... got it," I repeated. He left me in the middle of the strawberry fields, waiting for the girl of my dreams. The girl I had loved since I was eight. My hands started getting clammy and a could feel a bead of sweat threatening to trickle down the side of face. I raised my hand and wiped it off. My hands were literally shaking because I was that nervous. What if she rejects me? What if she humiliates me? Oh well. At least, I know I tried. I could leave a sad, lonely life knowing that she would never like, let along love, me. It was a one in a hundred chance. She _hated _me. Ever since that kiss from the quest, not so long ago, she had never brought it back up. Was she embarrassed that she kissed me? Did she not want it? Most girls would flaunt and throw their bodies all over me. I had to admit, the amount of attention I received was extremely flattering, but I just didn't like those girls. Too flashy, too pushy, too... weird, and too clingy. They were sluts. 'They' being Drew, a lot of other Aphrodite chicks, and a few other hopeless flirts. They never seem to get the fact that I don't like them, through their dense heads. Isn't it obvious with the way I ignore them and blow them off? I have a 'I Heart Travis' club ganging up on me. Not the gangster ganging up, but the extremely clingy girls are obsessed with me ganging up. Many times, they even fight themselves to try win me over. But you know what? That. Is. Never. Going. To. Happen.

Katie Lilly Gardner is the girl for me. The _only _girl for me. The only girl I have fallen in love with and will ever love in that sense. As corny as it sounded, she was the most beautiful woman in the world (as I said before) and no one will ever be able to replace her. I spotted her walking towards me, her hair flying back behind her and her eyes followed my every move. What I was going to do, wasn't much.

"Hey, Travis. Any particular reason why you asked me to be here?" she asked, with that melodic voice of hers.

Okay.. Staying awesome... "I didn't ask you. I told you to," I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Seriously?" she asked amused, "This is what your going to do? Just say it Travis. I know what you want."

My eyes bugged out, "Really?"

She laughed, "Of course. Kaycie's my best friend, she's dating your brother and she's a daughter of Aphrodite. She knows these things and she told me." Oh, great. My stupid brother told her.

I sighed lightly. I still needed to do this right. I was admitting was feelings for Katie. I had to now. Otherwise, she would think I was some chicken. "Look, Katie. I really like you. Like, really really like you. Oh, scratch that. I _love_ you. Ever since we were eight, the first day I met you, I fell in love with you. I know that you think this might be a joke, but it's not. It may seem like I'm lying, but I'm not. I really do love you. As I said, I have been for years. Nearly ten years," I continued on ranting. I didn't realise I was speaking continuously until I felt a hand over my mouth, muffling my words. I raised my hand and slowly took her hand off. "You know, if that was your mouth, it would've been better," I said, winking at her. She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling and there was a tint of red seen on her cheeks.

"Uhh... sorry. I got carried away," I said, looking down at the ground.

"It's okay," she said, softly.

I looked back up and just straight out asked, "Will you go to the fireworks with me, Kitty Kat?"

Her eyes seemed to light up more and she exclaimed, "Yes." She jumped on me. Well, not exactly but she hugged the life out of me.

"Excited much?" I teased.

She stuck her tongue out at me, "Maybe." And that was when I leaned in to kiss her.

Perfection.

* * *

**UNEDITED! **

**So... tired... need... to sleep... :S How did you like the Travis' POV? Sorry for the shorter than usual chapter. **

**Okay. I have NO IDEA when summer in America starts, so I'm just gonna have the next chapter as July 4th yadda yadda... yeah, whatever this chapter is probably a few week after the previous one - so... summer? **

**Song Of The Chapter: Boulevard Of Broken Dreams by Green Day**

**PS: Someone tell me what 4th July is meant to be..? I'm Aussie, so I don't know. **

**ATTENTION! Everyone who has ****Facebook, please like the page R.I.P Amanda Todd! Her story is extremely sad and I pity her and feel extremely sorry for her even though she isn't with us today. If you don't know her story, go to YouTube and type in, 'Amanda Todd Suicide - FULL ORIGINAL VIDEO' or, you could just read her story online. On WattPad, some people have started this chain to support her. :'( I feel so bad for her. She basically went through panic disorders and depressions and started cutting herself, leading to suicide. :(**

* * *

**MORE ATTENTION! I'll be taking a break from writing because of some personal issues and my yearly tests coming up aren't helping. I'm under a lot of stress and writing isn't helping right now. Depending on how long it is, I won't be writing for a while. Sorry! **

**READ AND REVIEW! :) **


	8. IMPORTANT AN!

**PLEASE READ THIS! IT'S EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! **

**I am extremely sorry for not uploading and if you thought this was a new chapter. So, I've been getting some messages to upload. PM's.. I know what it's like. You're desperate for an author to upload something. I've been in that situation myself. **

**I ask for two things only - **

****1. Give me time... please.. You have **no idea **what I'm going through right now. You're lucky I'm even alive right now.

2. Please read the Author's Notes. They are extremely important. That's the reason why authors put them in the chapters.

**My reason for not writing for these past long weeks, is legitimate. Only one person out there, knows why because I talk to her on WattPad (ToAwesomeForAName) and she has supported me the whole time, even though our time zones are like, the opposite. This AN will be posted on this and My Senior Year. **

Here's my story: Half the internet already knows, so why not just tell you guys?

**I'm a victim of bullying, suicide, depression, minor eating disorders and a few more. Two weeks ago, my bully called Evelyn, created a hater account on Wattpad, and cyberbullied me and these five guys who have the same problems as me, to break me... **

**And.. well, it worked. I ran across the really busy road near my house, hoping to die. I tried to suicide. I have a short story on Wattpad about my life and what I've been through. A car crashed into me and I was lucky to survive with only a fractured arm, broken leg, bruised sides, and a really minor concussion. I gave my best friend my Wattpad account, to talk to my fans. **

**I woke up only two hours later, finding a million comments and replies, mainly because of pity and sympathy. I found out that those five guys I love so much were also in the hospital. **

**I've been in hospital for two weeks and I will be released tomorrow. **

**Because my school is extreme in academics and it's the end of the year, I have yearly exams. Since I won't be going to school for six weeks, I miss those exams, so I'm doing them online. I have ten to do. **

**I've already done six in two days. And my brain is literally about to explode. I had to cram everything I learnt this year into my brain. And I hate studying. I have four more, so just please bear with me. **

**I've got a lot on my plate - depression, therapy, boy troubles and a few more. **

**I've got mixed emotions and I'm in a situation similar to ... Bella, Edward and Jacob -.- And I'm only 13. I'm just really confused. **

**I'm extremely sorry if this AN was really depressing, but I just had to tell you guys, otherwise I would feel way too guilty about not uploading.**

**Once again, I'm so sorry. I'm trying my BEST to write more. **


	9. Chapter 8

**Review Responses - **

**LightUpTheMidnight: Haha, I love the beaches too. I also hate the sand and salt, but it can't be a beach without it. :) **

**Mymesseduplife: Yeah.. well.. I really like one of them, so I don't really know.. **

**Thanks for your support guys! It means a lot and I love you guys so much! :)**

***Contains a few ****spoilers for MoA! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HoO. All rights belong to Rick Riordan. **

* * *

*Back to Katie's POV*

"Hey, Travis. I'm going to steal Katie from you. Bye," Piper appeared in front of us and dragged me to the Aphrodite cabin. "HEY! You can't steal her from me!" Travis shouted.

"Sorry, dude! She's mine, now! Not yours!"

"Geez, guys. I'm not an object. And why are you taking me to your cabin?" I asked, eyes wide in horror. I definitely did _not _want to go in there.

She grinned wickedly and said, "Fireworks tonight. You do want to look good for lover boy, don't you?"

"Lover boy?" I asked, rolling my eyes, "You're lying."

"Nope. I'm not. I may not act like one, but I am still a daughter of Aphrodite, you know. I can tell if someone likes or loves someone. And in this case, it's love."

I rolled my eyes, yet again, not believing my ears. I was definitely hearing things. "That's not true, either."

"Is that so? If I remember... he confessed that he loved you when he asked you out."

"How did you know that?" I asked her, eyeing her suspiciously.

She shrugged, nonchalantly. "Connor comes in handy sometimes."

Then I realised what she had said just moments ago, "Wait! You're giving me a makeover?!"

"Not just me..." she said, keeping a vice-like grip on me, but not tight enough to hurt me.

"Okay." I allowed her to drag me to their cabin, but once we were right in front of the cabin door, I bolted. "OI! Katie, get back here!" I could sense a little bit of charmspeak, but I wasn't affected, which was a good thing. I knew that she was holding back.

"Hey Katie. Back already? I knew you couldn't resist my charm?" Travis said flirtatiously, and winked at me.

"Pfft.. no. I'm trying to escape a makeover from the Aphrodite girls... and boys," I replied. "Protect me!"

Never in a million years, would I have looked for Travis for help... Never...

"Sure. Anything for my lady," he said, cockily and dramatically jumped in front of me, setting himself up in a fighting stance. I rolled my eyes at his act and just stood there, arms crossed. At least it was better than nothing... He looked around, pretending to be some ninja. His eyes were focused and narrowed into slits, as he squinted around looking for anything that could be a 'threat'. "Drama queen," I muttered under my breath.

He gasped in mock-offense, "Did you just call me a _queen? _I'm sorry Kitty-Kat, but I am a drama _king. _I'm a man, not a woman." With the last sentence, he gestured to himself, just to prove the point.

How did people live with _this? _Wait... I should be asking myself that. Why did I even agree to go to the fireworks with him. My thoughts were cut short, when I heard Piper speak to Travis using her charmspeak. He blinked, obviously in a daze.

"Travis. Move out of the way. Katie, walk into the Aphrodite cabin," she charmspoke. I didn't want to move, but unfortunately my legs went against me and so did Travis'. I somehow walked my way to the Aphrodite cabin. Just one step inside, the putrid smell of excessive perfume filled my nostrils. It was like each and every single inch of the cabin was spraying with perfume more than twenty times. Then, I realised that I had come here against my will. I turned around to face the Cherokee girl next to me. "You charmspoke me," I accused.

She blinked innocently, "What? No, I didn't."

I rolled my eyes. "Now that I'm here, may I please go?" I begged. "Why am I even here?" I asked, even though I knew the exact reason why.

"You and Travis are the camp's gossip right now. _Everyone _is talking about you guys. Literally. Nobody, except us Aphrodite kids, knew that you guys would go together. As I said before, it may sound really weird for this to come out of my mouth, but you have got to remember, I am still a daughter of Aphrodite. I have my moments. I mean, he asked you to go the fireworks with him and it's tonight. You need to look amazing."

"Why does it matter?" I asked, exasperated. I threw my hands up in the air, not understanding why this was such a big deal. "And besides," I continued on, "It's still _hours _until the fireworks."

"Yeh, but it takes a long time to get yourself perfect," Kaycie joined in on the conversation. "We're just picking out dresses now and after dinner, we're doing make up and all that."

I groaned, "Fine." I knew that I couldn't win with them. A: They could use their charmspeaking powers anytime. B: They were extremely persuasive even without charmspeaking.

Their facial expressions visibly lightened up at my response. I guess Piper really was an Aphrodite girl at times. She definitely had her moments.

* * *

_Everyone _was talking about the fireworks... well, except for a few of the Ares kids and those who don't really care.

I was intentionally trying to eat as slow as possible. I might as well have been a snail. I twirled the spaghetti around my fork, staring at it for no particular reason. It wasn't even that interesting. I was just really dreading to go to the Aphrodite's cabin. I would have to try avoid Drew's daggers, and I would have to stay sitting in that cabin filled with perfume and make up products. That basically spelled out Torture. With a capital 'T'. I would probably have to be tied to some fluffy pink chair with some invisible ropes. Wait.. I probably just jinxed it. Damn it. "Katie, are you okay?" I heard a soft voice ask. I jerked my head to my left to find wide, innocent eyes that belonged to Marianne, my younger half-sister, staring at me.

I smiled genuinely at her, "I'm good." I felt someone's eyes burning holes into my head. Not the glaring, burning holes kind though. I looked up ahead of me, to find a pair of sky blue eyes staring into my green eyes. His blue orbs were mesmerising. It was like they were piercing into my soul. Not in the bad way, but in the good way. I continued staring at his eyes, like they were the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life. I loved the way they constantly shone and sparkled with happiness, with a hint of mischief and amusement all the time. How could I have never noticed this before? I couldn't believe I was so oblivious to this before. It was only _now _that I noticed... But, why now? I was jerked out of train of thoughts, when I felt someone's hand clamp down on my shoulder and I turned around, breaking the eye contact between us, to face the person. Kaycie. She raised an eyebrow at me.

"Hurry up and eat, hon. I know you've deliberately tried to eat slow to avoid this. You can't hide anything from me. I know you too well. Chop, chop. Eat," she ordered. I obliged. I just _couldn't _argue with her.

"But not too much," she added, "Or too sloppily either." I rolled my eyes at my best friend, and shoved the rest of my dinner down my throat. Once I was done, she grabbed my forearm and dragged me up and to the Aphrodite/Barbie cabin we went. I caught Travis' eyes once again and he smirked arrogantly at me and winked at me. Wait, where was Piper?

Kaycie pushed open the door with such force, it pretty much slammed into Drew, who was screaming at some of her younger half-siblings. She let out a shriek as the door came in contact with her nose and blood came rushing out. "You bitch!" she screamed, "Eww! Blood! This is so sticky and gross and yuck!" She pinched the bridge of her nose and tilted her head far back, way more than she was meant to. "Arghh! What is wrong with you?!"

My best friend rolled her blue eyes and pointed out the obvious, "All the blood is going to flood your brain."

"WHAT?" Drew screeched. In a split second, she had her head facing the ground, her chin on her chest. Gods, she really was dumb. What an air head. "Whatever," Kaycie muttered and dragged me into her room, where Piper was. She was standing at the doorway, watching two girls. Those two girls being the Annabeth Chase and the Thalia Grace, who were both sitting down on fluffy chairs and scowling. Yeah... I'm guessing what I thought would happen was actually happening... I really shouldn't have jinxed it. Piper locked the door behind her and spoke.

"Okay. You guys will stay in here for the entire time until the fireworks. Your dates and ours, know to pick us up here. We asked a few of the Hecate kids to place a magic spell on the Aphrodite cabin, so you guys won't be able to leave the cabin, you won't be able to take your outfit off, and you won't be able to get off your chairs until we say you can. Now, Katie, sit," she charmspoke. I allowed my legs to take me to the fluffed pink chair and sat down. Oh, what did I get myself into?

After numerous countless attempts of threatening those two girls, we had to give up eventually. The Hecate kids had also made the cabin power-free... unfortunately. Thalia wasn't able to zap them with any electricity and I couldn't strangle them with plants. Well, not literally strangle, but you probably know what I mean.

For the next few hours, we had to go through this process: shower, dry hair, do hair, do make up, and then put the outfit on. And there were a hell lot of of products. I didn't even know most of them. It was a good thing that they didn't use much. Thalia was the main one using make up, because of the dark make up and heaviness of it. She always used eyeliner, and tonight, she had smoky eyes. I doubted Nico would be able to keep his hands off her, seeing as her black dress was tight and short, but not the short that Drew would wear. She was wearing her normal black Converse high tops, and had a black leather jacket to go with everything. She looked like some rebel going to some party. Oh wait.. she was a rebel...

Meanwhile, Annabeth was a little hard to cooperate with. She refused to have even one millimetre's square of make up on her face. Being her stubborn self, she would keep her arms crossed, across her chest, and frown all the time, trying to dodge Piper and Kaycie. Mainly Kaycie, because she was extremely persistent. Thalia finally cracked, and forced her best friend to just put some on, against Annabeth's will. She reluctantly agreed, but only blood red lipstick, to go with her red dress and a bit of glitter eye shadow. She was wearing red ankle boots with her knee-length dress.

Then there was Kaycie. I swear, I honestly didn't even want to know what Connor would do, the moment he would lay his eyes on her. I mean, she was wearing a mauve dress, with a low V-neck. The dress was skin-tight and it just came below her butt. I didn't understand how she was comfortable with wearing that. Also, she was wearing killer heels. How could she not stumble?

Piper... the tomboy daughter of Aphrodite. I never thought she would get in a dress. But she had said that, she wanted normal jeans. It was just that her mother wouldn't allow her to. She wore a light blue dress that went about two inches above her knee. To match it, she had a black ribbon wrapping around her waist and a black headband. She had no make-up on, but I wasn't surprised.

Then there was me. Boring, old Katie Gardner. I was in a white sundress with spaghetti straps and a light blue sash that was decorated with sequins and sparkles. I had a little bit of foundation on and some light blue eye shadow, and my hair had been straightened, so it was pin straight, and it was tied up into a low side ponytail. I was wearing a pair of white flats and a light blue denim jacket. I had to admit, I did look quite good.

"And.. just on time," Kaycie said, checking her already perfect hair for the umpteenth time, as the doorbell rang. As we trudged our way to the door, Drew sent me a death glare, that wasn't really deathly and sneered at me. She was probably PMS-ing like usual or something. Or she was in her normal foul mood.

Piper opened the door and peeped through the gap to check if it was them or not. "Hello!" she hollered, and opened the door wide open. I raised an eyebrow at her sudden hyperness. Now, was that really necessary? The first two guys in view were Leo and Connor. And Leo's jaw dropped with a 'pop'. He blinked several times, looking at his girlfriend up and down, who took the meantime to check him out too. I had to admit.. the guys didn't look bad at all, and they had no help from the Aphrodite guys. I stepped outside behind the other girls, adjusting to the mildly humid weather and the slight breeze.

The other guys and girls were complimenting each other, but they were the couples. Of course they would. I stood there awkwardly, playing with the hem of my jacket, avoiding Travis' gaze. Even though I could feel his eyes on me, I wouldn't lift my head up. I just didn't want my eyes meeting his, and then blush.

He broke the awkward silence that had settled upon us by clearing his throat and said, "You look beautiful."

Unfortunately, I couldn't just not look up. I simply couldn't resist. His blue eyes captivated me once again, trapping me in a trance. Was it normal that he had such an effect on me? I had never felt this way before. I blinked and stuttered out, "T-thanks." I blushed slightly as I continued, "You look quite good yourself." That was no lie. He has in a plain white v-neck and a pair of low slung jeans. He looked hot.

Travis chuckled in amusement and smirked at me, "Thank you, Kitty-Kat."

Oh, my gods, did I just say that out loud?

"Yes, you did."

Oh, gods.

"Oh, gods is correct," he said, grinning like a maniac. I rolled my eyes, but smiled at him anyway.

"I still have no idea why you said yes to _this _doofus here," Connor interrupted and pointed his thumb at his older twin brother, jokingly.

I laughed and joked, "I honestly don't know either." Travis pretended to look offended and placed his hand on his heart. "That's so mean."

"What can I say?" I said. "I'm a mean girl." He rolled his eyes.

"No. You are nowhere near mean. Trust me with that."

"Shall we go, m'lady?" he asked, with a posh British accent after a few moments of silence. I nodded eagerly and we walked to the amphitheatre where the fireworks were going to be held. I honestly couldn't wait. The fireworks would actually be exhibited at midnight, but before that we usually had a dance for the three hours.

We were considered 'fashionably late', since many people had already arrived earlier, to set things up and probably because they just wanted to spend more time celebrating. I looked around. Some guys were dressed in suits, making them look like some ridiculous penguins. Others were dressed casually like Travis. Some had the 'I-just-woke-up-from-bed' kind of hair, while others had some mussed up hair that looked like they had run their hands through it a million times. And a few of them had gel in their hair...

The girls were all wearing dresses. And by all, it included Clarisse as well. But she had that permanent scowl etched on her face like always. She had arms crossed as if she was self-conscious or uncomfortable with wearing it. Many other girls were flaunting their bodies all over the guys they thought were hot or chasing after, otherwise known as their dates. Some had actually gotten extensions in their hair and had even gone to dying their hair to different colours, for their streaks and tips. Most girls had their hair down, so I was unique. Just what I wanted.

* * *

It was wild. Not drinking wild, but crazy wild. It was like everyone was hyped up on drugs... except for Clarisse, but everyone saw that coming. She just stood on that spot sending her usual random death glares to random people... like Percy, and Travis. I actually found it quite amusing with the way they cringed and cowered behind Annabeth and I. "Gods, man up," I said, rolling my eyes.

"I am a man."

"You sure don't seem like one," I muttered under my breath.

'Turn Me On' by Nicki Minaj was blasting from the speakers. I didn't even want to know what inspired her to write that song. It was a good song though. Everyone around us jumped wildly and whooped like goons. I simply bounced on the spot, not in a party mood, to the beat of the upbeat music.

"Want to dance?" he offered.

I shrugged. "Okay." It wouldn't hurt, would it? Right when we started dancing with our friends, the Apollo kids decided to put on a slow song. I mean, really? Oh gods, somebody _please _help me. I was sure this was going to get a whole lot more awkward. And that slow song was 'Moments' by One Direction. Upon hearing this, the Aphrodite girls and ridiculous fangirls shrieked in excitement, dragging their dates to the dance floor while bouncing up and down, like they were on steroids. They looked ridiculous. I didn't understand why they liked that boy band so much. They were just five British guys who girls fanned over because of their looks and 'amazing' voices.

I stood their awkwardly not knowing what to do, even though I was watching many other couples dance. I uneasily placed my arms around Travis' neck as his snaked around my waist, bringing our bodies closer to each other.

_'You know I'll be _

_Your life_

_Your voice_

_Your reason to be_

_My love_

_My heart_

_Is breathing for this_

_Moment_

_In time_

_I'll find the words to say_

_Before you leave me today'_

We swayed to the rhythm, gazing at each other's eyes. I swore he inched closer every time he could, and I was right. Before I knew it, we were kissing. In public. In front of everyone else, otherwise known as the camp. I pulled away, looking around, and sighed in relief when I saw that nobody had noticed us. I looked anywhere but his eyes, making it even more awkward. But at least my legs weren't going to weaken, right? I could only hope, but...

He lifted my chin up and brushed a strand of hair away from my face and tucked it behind my ear. "Can I ask you something?" I nodded, not being able to form any words.

"Will you be my girlfriend?" Well, that came straight out.

Without a second's hesitation, I said, "Yes."

His features lightened up visibly and he asked, "Really?"

I nodded, just as his lips came crashing down onto mine.

* * *

"Hellooooooo, everyone! How are you?" Everyone cheered loudly. "Because this is the first fireworks after the Giant war and the second after the Titan war, this one will be special."

Currently, I was next to Travis, his arm around me, sitting on a blanket. With our friends around us or next to us. It couldn't get any better.

The fireworks started off normal. Shooting up and then exploding like they were sprouting, from the centre to the outside. Then the fireworks depicted the faces of many different heroes, like they were slides of a powerpoint presentation. The Hephaestus kids had done an amazing job with them. The first picture that came up was of Percy in from of The Empire State Building holding his sword up. He looked like an actual superhero. Then, it was Nico with his sword on the ground as he summoned the army of skeletons during the Titan war, followed by a scene that portrayed Travis and Connor stealing goods from that candy store they had found, causing everyone to laugh. Next up. A scene where there was Kronos and you could tell Luke's spirit still wasn't taken over. That scene was where Thalia and Grover were watching their Percy and Annabeth's exchange with 'Luke'. And the one after... everyone saw that one coming. Annabeth and Percy's kiss in the air bubble underwater. Ahh... good memories. And this one caused those two to blush a beet red.

Then it was the Giant War. The first picture was of the famous _Argo II_. A picture of the seven chosen Greek and Roman demigods fighting were shown. You could see the determination on their faces, as if they were thinking something along the lines of, '_No going back now.' _Leo and Hazel showed up, with Narcissus and Echo, followed by Jason and Piper fighting the river god. Percy and Annabeth showed up yet again, but they were falling into the pits of Tartarus. And finally, the picture of the seven demigods, coming home successful, with a lot of dignity and pride...

* * *

**I don't think the beginning part was really well-written or useful but, oh well. Ugh! I planned this chapter out and I KNEW what I was gonna write, but it wouldn't come out right. :/**

**Okay, since I don't know how this stuff goes and I haven't read PJO in a long time (o.O), I just made it up... **

**Ughh.. it was so hard to write this! I don't know this fashion and make up stuff. -.- I'm a tomboy not a girly girl! I think I just got girlified by writing this chapter -_-**

**I just realised my chapters keep getting longer and longer. xD **

**I'm gonna fangirl.. OMG DID YOU HERE THE NEW 1D ALBUM? IT'S AMAZAYN! :D LITTLE THINGS! :3 Even my mum loves it! c:**

**Song: They Don't Know About Us (I LOVE THAT SONG) xD**

**READ AND REVIEW! **


	10. Chapter 9

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**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HoO. All rights belong to Rick Riordan. **

* * *

To be honest, life couldn't get any better. I was dating Travis Stoll and he loved me. I still wasn't sure if I loved him, but I knew that I definitely liked him. Actually, scratch that. I really, really, really, _really _liked him. For the past three months, he had acted like a complete gentleman, unlike what he used to be... well, only _sometimes_was he the obnoxious son of Hermes that I had grown up with for over half my life.

When my step-mother and step-sister found out that we were dating, they spazzed out. Stacy, my step-sister said, "Oh my gosh, are you serious? You hated him! _Hated_ him! He was like, your mortal enemy! And now you two are dating? _The _Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter and _the _Travis Stoll, son of Hermes... that's ridiculous, yet so cute and amazing!"

Meanwhile, my step-mother, Dani was speechless. She had actually dropped her glass of lemonade, allowing the glass to shatter and scatter all over the tiles in the kitchen, and allowed the lemonade to spill freely. She had stared at me, with wide eyes like an owl and a dropped jaw, which might as well have touched the ground. Then, she squealed, like Aphrodite would have. Even through the Iris-Message we were communicating over, I winced, not liking the shrill and how high pitched it was. It could've broken a glass.

Unlike those fairytales or many other demigod families, my parents didn't ignore me. They were much like Sally Jackson, Percy's mother and Mr Blofis, his step-father. They cared for me and loved me, the way I loved them.

Right now, I was tending to the flowers and pulling out nasty weeds, enjoying the fresh air. I was humming and bouncing slightly to the rhythm. I tucked a strand of hair behind my hair, as I stood up, admiring my work. No weeds anymore, but there sure were going to be more later. I heard heavy footsteps running towards me and I looked up. Travis was sprinting towards me, and he looked like he had just gotten up from sleep. Well, it was the morning, so he did just get up. His hair was disheveled and unruly. It was clear that he didn't bother to brush his hair or change his clothes. He was shirtless, revealing his toned chest and stomach, and he was wearing his jeans and shoes. I knew he had just put them on hastily before running out.

I raised an eyebrow at him as he gasped out, "We need to talk to Chiron." Well, at least he brushed his teeth.

"Why?" I frowned, thinking of why we would need to. Was it about the fact that the gods might be wiped out... again?

"I got a dream. I am not quite sure but... I think it might be about that thing our parents told us." His eyebrows furrowed. I couldn't help but trail my eyes down his body. I found myself staring at his toned six pack, which was nearly an extremely hot eight pack. When I finally came back to my senses, I averted my gaze and pretended to look around, like it was suddenly much more interesting.

I could literally see the smirk plastered on his face as he asked, "Enjoy the view?" I could feel the blood rushing up to my face as I looked around and replied, "Yeh, it's a beautiful view. The environment and all that."

He chuckled, "You know I'm not talking about that?"

I decided to play the dumb card and said, "Then what are you talking about?"

He rolled his eyes and gestured to his body. "This."

This time, I was the one who rolled my eyes. "Come on. Let's go to Chiron."

I took my gloves off, giving them a wash in the bathroom, before grabbing my boyfriend's hand.

The first thing Chiron said when he saw us was, "Travis, is it too much for you to put a shirt on?"

He smirked, "Yup."

Chiron rolled his eyes and asked, "Why are you two here so early? Especially you?" The last question was directed to Travis, considering that he never woke up unless someone dragged him up.

"Um.. well I had this dream." Chiron raised his eyebrows and lead us inside the White House. We sat down at the ping pong table and I listened intently to what Travis had to say.

"So, there was this war in camp, right here. I'm not sure what or who we were against but there were definitely demigods fighting us. I don't think the Golden Fleece was still there and I think the camp's borders were weakening because there were a few monsters in the camp."

I frowned, thinking hard. Was this what was going to happen? This didn't sound that bad, considering the Titan War and Giant War.

Chiron seemed to be deep in concentration as he said, "We need to train more. Travis, by any chance, did you recognise anyone's faces of the other side?"

Travis shook his head no. Chiron knew we were hiding something, so I decided to spill everything.

"Not good," he stated. "I think this might be happening now or very soon."

Something gold shimmered from behind him and we looked over his shoulder to find the Olympian gods, Hades and Hestia there. Travis and I automatically bowed our heads, seeing as we weren't standing and Chiron did as well.

"Good morning. Is everything okay up in Olympus?" Chiron asked.

"Well, we weren't expecting the two demigods there, but I guess they can listen, considering they are extremely important for this," Zeus stated, matter-of-factly. "We have each lost an important possession - one of our most important possessions. No god or goddess could have stolen it, but we have no idea who did. He or she has not let a single trace of their fingerprints or evidence."

Chiron nodded and said, "Is this connected with what Katie and Travis told me?"

"Maybe," Apollo replied. "I just saw a vision of demigods fighting monsters and other demigods, us somehow getting weaker, the possibility of being overpowered and thirteen demigods meeting somewhere... My visions don't tell that much anymore."

"Okay..."

"I think we need a quest," many of the Olympians chorused. I had to agree with that. Chiron nodded at them, before Zeus ended the message.

"Well, he's right. Go to Rachel's cave and see if she has painting anything or if she spills a prophecy."

We obliged and walked our way to Rachel's creepy cave. We held hands, swaying them back and forth, enjoying the silence. "Why do you think we're important for this?" Travis asked me, "I mean, we're just a son of Hermes and a daughter of Demeter. We aren't that important. Why couldn't it be Percy and Annabeth again?"

"I don't know," I replied, honestly.

"Hey guys," Rachel greeted when we entered her cave. She didn't look up at us. She continued painting whatever artwork in front of her. There were two other canvases laid out in front of her. One of them was a picture of a eight people trying to retrieve an object, but were blocked by some invisible force. Another depicted the scene of Thalia's tree without the Golden Fleece. The one she was working on was like a map, but I wasn't quite sure what it was of.

Suddenly she doubled over, as green smoke came pouring out of her mouth and she spoke in what sounded like three voices.

_'Daughter of harvest and son of trickery _

_Shall lead a quest for victory. _

_You must seek for each god's possession_

_Through love, success and passion. _

_The dove, the wise and the sky_

_With the fire, the sea and the dead,_

_Must help the two to retrieve the cure_

_For family and friends they shall proceed_

_To the land down under, to find what they seek._

_One side will prevail, the other will succeed.'_

We managed to catch her, before she collapsed onto the ground. Rachel groaned and rubbed her eyes, "I am never going to get used to that feeling... ever! What did I say?"

"You spilled a prophecy," Travis stated out the obvious. I rolled my eyes and repeated the prophecy.

"This isn't good. We need a counsellor's meeting," she stated and marched out the door, carrying her paintings, with us following her.

"Chiron!" she called him, "We need a counsellor's meeting for the prophecy."

He nodded shortly and said, "After breakfast, when everyone is awake."

* * *

Percy groaned and slumped into his chair. "Not another quest for me."

I had just repeated the prophecy Travis and I had received to our fellow counsellors. The children of the minor gods looked like they didn't care about it at all. Butch was shoving pencils up a sleeping Clovis' nose like usual, and the others were fiddling with their fingers or something they had picked up. Rachel was painting away again in the corner, so nobody could see her artwork.

"Well, I guess it's Katie and Travis again," Annabeth stated.

"Yeh," I muttered, "Unfortunately."

"And because there is no other possibility, the sea is definitely Percy, the fire is Leo and the dead is Nico. The sky is most likely Thalia, since Jason isn't here, the wise is either me or my other siblings, and the dove is Piper or her siblings," the blonde daughter of Athena said, wasting no time to cut straight to the chase.

"You are right, my child," Chiron said to her and then turned to face us, "You two get to choose which wise child and dove accompanies you."

"Piper and Annabeth," we chorused, without hesitation. The two girls nodded in acceptance.

"What's the cure?" Leo asked, frowning.

"I don't know," everyone chorused.

"The land down under," Piper piped up, "Australia. I had to go there with my dad once, but why would we have to go there?"

"Umm..." Annabeth stammered, "I don't know..."

"But," she added, "I'm pretty sure this is a war, right, Chiron?"

He nodded and replied, "I'm pretty sure it is, considering the line, 'One side will prevail, the other will succeed'. That should be something like a war. Something that the gods half told us. I know what that is. Travis, Katie. Explain." He gestured for us to elaborate.

We took turns telling everyone about our Iris-Message and Travis' dream, leaving all of us utterly confused.

"Well, I guess we have to figure this out as we go along with it. When do we need to leave?" I asked.

"I guess tomorrow?" Thalia said. We nodded in agreement and made a few more arrangements, before we were dismissed.

* * *

"The golden fleece is gone!" I heard someone scream. Many people scrambled up, abandoning their dinner to go outside to see what was happening. People were crowded around Thalia's pine tree, staring at the spot where the golden fleece used to be. Nothing was shimmering anymore. Without it, the camp's borders would weaken, which would soon allow monsters to come in and attack.

The majority of the children of the minor gods didn't seem to care much. I was starting to grow more suspicious by the minute. Were they planning something behind or backs? Or were they just so ignorant and didn't care for our camp at all? I couldn't decided which one it was, but I was going to find out.

"Those going on the quest and Rachel! Meeting at the Big House, now!" Chiron ordered. The eight of us rushed to the Big House and sat by the Ping Pong table in a silence. We waited for someone to speak up, daring each other silently.

The Oracle spoke up, hesitantly, "I received a vision."

"What was it?" Nico asked curiously.

Rachel pursed her lips before placing a canvas in the middle of the table and said, "A few gods have betrayed the Olympians, Hades and Hestia, but I'm not entirely sure. The Oracle of Delphi sent me a vision of the camp fighting like in Travis' dream, a-and I right now, I only know two gods who have betrayed them. Janus and Nike."

"Not good," Thalia muttered.

"And there are so many more minor gods and I'm not sure how many more of them are like Janus and Nike. The gods who have turned their backs on the Olympians, have their children against Olympian children too, so I think that's what the war is for."

"Well, I guess that explains why they haven't really cared about this and why some of them were smirking at the meeting this morning," Thalia said. Huh, so I wasn't the only one who noticed that.

"Well, I know the locations of where the items are," Rachel stated, pointing at the painting in the middle of the table. It was a map of the continent Australia with the borders of each state included. There were seventeen red dots scattered across the diagram.

"Isn't that Africa?" Percy asked, dumbly. All of us rolled our eyes at his lack of knowledge.

"Dude, that's Australia, not Africa," Travis replied.

"Oh..."

"Anyways," Rachel continued, "These red spots are where each item is. There are sixteen objects you need to retrieve, and I know for a fact that these sixteen objects belong to the gods who aren't against the Olympians. So, obviously the Olympians themselves, Hades, Hestia and two others who we still don't know. And obviously, someone has stolen the Golden Fleece and it's in one of these spots."

"Well, this is really different from usual," Annabeth said.

Chiron nodded in agreement and said, "Through all my years of training demigods, I have never come across something quite like this. They were usually the Twelve Tasks, the normal quests you all know about and the Titan and Giant wars. This definitely isn't a good thing, but it doesn't seem as bad as the previous wars, because they have no Titan or Giant we know of, but we'll have to see. I suggest you all set off tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, the others will train and I am sure more will be revealed along the way."

* * *

_- The morning of the next day - _

A cold, chilly breeze whipped through the air as winter was coming soon. We were walking to Argus' van for a ride to the airport. Now, you're probably thinking, wouldn't Zeus blast us off because Percy and Nico were going to be on his turf? Well, considering his own daughter was with them, he wouldn't. Most likely because he didn't want to kill her, or because he didn't want his daughter to try killing him for blasting her boyfriend and friends off the sky, allowing them to plummet down to their deaths. _  
_

We had agreed that Annabeth and Piper would figure out where we were going, considering Annabeth knew so much and Piper had been down under before. I was actually extremely excited to go to Australia. From what I had heard, it's amazing there and many people wanted to go there. Leo was literally on fire. He was bouncing up and down, looking like he was hyped up on drugs.

Because we didn't know what we were going to had to go through, we had to bring more objects and equipment with us. Hermes had actually visited us last night, telling us that even though we were a group of eight who would attract a lot of monsters, we couldn't split up. We had to stay together. When we asked why, he said for no reason. It would just be better if we stuck together.

We had all decided that we would start from Perth, the capital of Western Australia first and then move our way across the country.

We climbed into the van and I happened to be seated right behind Argus. Throughout the entire ride to the airport, a few of his eyes at the back of his head and neck were staring at me and the others, creeping me out. He probably sensed that, because his eyes seemed to flicker from left to right a lot.

As we hopped out, we muttered our thanks to him, and he remained silent, giving us a simple nod in response.

I hated waiting in the queue to get on the plane. I just hated it. It was so long and tedious, that Nico and Travis had actually fallen asleep. Due to my ADHD, I couldn't help but to either tap my nails on some surface or fiddle with something. The same thing was with the other girls. Thalia was pacing around while Percy was playing with the water in the cup he was holding, creating different shapes. Meanwhile, Leo was tinkering with objects he had pulled out from his tool belt.

When we were finally seated after what seemed like forever, the captain ordered for all electronic devices to be turned off and for everyone to have their seatbelts on, before taking off.

Percy wasn't looking out the window and his face was scrunched up, like he was in pain or something. Nico was clutching onto the arm rests like his life depended on it. His fists were clenched around them so tight, his knuckles were turning white. Thalia, on the other hand, was green in the face. Literally. Her eyes were shut tightly and she looked like she was on the brink of hyperventilating. It was quite ironic, how Thalia was the daughter of Zeus, but was afraid of heights.

When the so called 'torture' was finally over, Travis asked, "Hey, Nico. Couldn't you have shadow travelled us there?"

Nico gave my boyfriend a blank look, "If I did, I would be passed out for who knows how long."

"Oh... right... you have your limits." I snuggled up closer to Travis, soon falling asleep, hopefully for a dreamless sleep, but no, that did not happen. Some time during my slumber, my mother appeared to me for a short amount of time.

_I found myself standing in a bare room, that only had one dim light in the corner. It illuminated a reflection of an elegant woman standing right next to it. Where was I? I looked around, finding nothing much. The woman was my mother, Demeter. _

_I instantly bowed down, showing my respect and stood back up when she told me too. _

_"Mother, why am I here?" I asked, curiously. _

_"Katie, I'm here to tell you something," she said. I looked at her, telling her with my eyes to continue on. _

_"As you have probably figure out, the minor gods are in fact against us. We have figured that they are doing this because their children still don't receive enough recognition, even though they are being claimed and given a home at Camp Half-Blood. However, they say that the spotlight is all on the children of major gods, not their own children. Only two of the minor gods are with us, and we still haven't figured out who, but you will, with your friends." _

_"So, basically, they are just jealous of us because they never get to do anything when we do?" I asked. _

_"Exactly. Also, those gods and goddesses also want a higher and much more important rank than they have right now. The only other thing we know of right now, is that they plan to rule Olympus, by killing us. Gods may never completely die, but they can fade away. Their spirits will still be alive and they will be much weaker. That is all I can tell you as of right now, but I wish you luck for this important quest." _

"Come on, babe," Travis said, shaking me slightly, "Wake up. We're here."

I rubbed my eyes, trying to get rid of the drowsiness to find him staring at me. The others had already gone and Travis said that they had gone out early to find a good spot to eat.

We found them in front of McDonalds, with the guys eating away like there was no tomorrow, not that it surprised me much. They could eat a lot, especially Travis. During the meal, I told them about what my mother had told me through my dream and discussed it.

"Okay. That explains a whole lot more now and a lot of puzzle pieces are coming together," Annabeth said. "Come on. We can't waste any time. We know for sure there will be a war in camp but we don't know when. We need to get started now."

"YEH, BABY! Let's hit the beaches!" Percy exclaimed.

* * *

**Song For The Chapter: Um... I'm obsessed with Take Me Home so... ROCK ME BY ONE DIRECTION! :D**

**Guys, I'm so sorry for the slowness of this. I have stupid school and will have it for another three weeks. Then it's six weeks holidays, but my mum said she might pull the internet plug out because I'm always on the computer... o.O**

**GAAAHHHH! THAT STUPID PROPHECY TOOK SO LONG TO MAKE UP! IT WAS SO HARD! :(**

**Haha, Piper piped... get it? You probably don't, just ignore me... **

**I am going to have to do a lot of research for this ._.**

**Is this going a little too fast paced? :/ **

**READ AND REVIEW! :D **


	11. Chapter 10

**Review Responses –**

**Live Dance and Hope: Aww thanks. :) ONE DIRECTION! fangirls too! I love Kiss You and Truly, Madly, Deeply. :P Ok, thank you. It means a lot. I can't find you on Wattpad :/**

**Neusuada: Haha yeh! Piper piped. :P**

**RosegirlPrincess: Haha I sent you a message as a response, but YESH! AUSTRALIA WILL DOMINATE! :D**

**xFeanathielx: Haha I understood all that :3 That's for me to know, and for you to found out ;) Thanks **

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**Only five reviews? I think we can bump that up a little. :)**

**This is dedicated to RosegirlPrincess for the help and support :D **

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HoO. All rights belong to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

"Um.. Percy," Piper said, "Perth isn't famous for their beaches, Queensland is..."

"Really? Oh, well, it's Australia," he shrugged.

"Come on, guys. We shouldn't waste any time. We need to get these items and the Golden Fleece wherever that is and go back to camp," Annabeth said. She pulled the map out of her back pack and studied it. "There are only sixteen dots marked on this map. Where's the one for the fleece?"

"What?" I asked. "We don't even know our way around this country. How are we supposed to find that?"

"I guess we'll get clues along the way," Nico butted in.

Thalia squinted her eyes trying to decipher the English writing with her dyslexia, "Bell Towel, Brack Squid, Preth."

Leo snorted, "What's that supposed to mean?"

The daughter of Zeus glared at him and snapped, "Why don't you try reading it, huh, Valdez?"

"Sure thing." Piper rolled her kaleidoscope eyes next to him and shook her head at her boyfriend. "Umm... Blek Troll, Black Squire, Perk?"

This time, Thalia snorted and started laughing, "Valdez, that was even worse than mine." She continued snickering as Annabeth said, "It's Bell Tower, Barrack Square, Perth, guys."

"How were you able to read it so fast?" Leo asked, incredulously.

"There's Greek underneath the English."

"Ohh," Thalia and Leo chorused stupidly.

"Yeah. Come on," she replied, amused by their actions.

"Excuse me," Travis asked a lady sitting behind a desk, giving her his charming smile. I instantly felt jealousy surge through my veins as she smiled back, flirtily. "Do you know how to go to Bell Tower?"

"Yes, of course. It's a simple thirty minute drive from here. I can draw you a map if you want."

"Sure."

Like she had said, she drew up a map, that didn't really give much information. It just looked like a bunch of lines scribbled in a hurry and had been highlighted, not that it helped at all. "Umm... thanks."

"You're welcome." She handed him another small slip of paper. No doubt, did it have her number on it. I glared at her, my grip on Travis' hand tightening. The corners of his lips tugged up into a smirk, obviously quite amused that I was so jealous... yes, I admitted it.

He handed the slip of paper back to her, saying, "Umm.. sorry. I'm taken." He dragged us away and back to our friends who were waiting for us.

"So?" Annabeth asked, raising an eyebrow. He chucked the piece of paper at her. She frowned obviously not understanding the piece of garbage. "Well, this helps a lot," she said, sarcastically.

"Hey, do you think that we will find Aussies riding kangaroos to school and work?" Leo butted in.

"Dude, that sounded wrong," Percy said.

"Ugh, nasty," Nico shuddered. I rolled my eyes. And I knew that the other girls had the same thoughts, 'Boys. They will never change, will they?'

"Oh, do you think it's true that Aussies also wrestle crocodiles in their backyards? If they do, that would be so awesome!" Travis exclaimed.

"Come on, guys. These are just stereotypes," Thalia said. "Do you see those stereotypical bitchy blonde cheerleaders and big-headed jocks in America? No. Do you see Canadians living in igloos? No."

"Good point."

"What's the time?" I asked, looking around for a clock.

"Six in the evening," Leo replied.

"Oh, hey guys," Piper spoke up and pointed to a guy coming out of his car, or more like van. "That guy's van can fit us all. Eight people. And I can see that he has a GPS. We could use that."

"But wouldn't he say no?" Percy asked.

"Seaweed Brain, she can charmspeak," Annabeth replied.

"Oh, yeah... Right. I see now."

Piper walked up to the middle-aged man, who was just putting his sunglasses on and was looking around for something or someone. He was probably meant to pick someone up from the airport. "Hi, mister. I was wondering, may I use your car please?" I could hear the obvious charmspeak in her voice as the guy fell into her trance. He nodded and said, "Yes."

"Sir, may I have your keys, please?"

He handed the car keys to her in a daze. She gestured for us to go over to her and we did. "Shotgun!" I yelled, and climbed into the passenger's seat, allowing the others to fight over their seats until Annabeth sorted the whole situation out.

"Hey! Get back over here, young lady!" he yelled, when he finally realised that he had been tricked.

"Nah, I think I'm good!" she shouted back. She shoved the keys in the ignition hole and started the engine hastily.

"Okay, you listen here, young lady. And you listen to me good," he frowned at all of us, trying to pry the locked door open but to no avail. "This is my car, and you cannot sweet talk me into giving it to you. This is my property. Not yours."

Piper stomped on the pedal and we were off, ignoring the numerous protests from the guy. "Yeaaah! Take that sucker!" Leo shouted, ecstatically.

"Umm... dude, calm down. You're going to burn down the whole car," Nico said, gesturing to his hands which were slightly ablazed.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry," he apologised, calming himself down.

'Turn right in three hundred metres.'

...

'Turn right in two hundred metres.'

...

'Turn right in one hundred metres.'

...

'Turn right.'

I was getting sick of the GPS. The voice was just simply annoying. It irritated me so much. The monotone feminine voice, directing us to turn left and right and going straight every one hundred metres. My head actually hurt.

"Oh my gods. That is annoying. Can we please turn that thing off?" Travis asked, pleadingly.

"Well, unless you're a walking GPS, then no," Piper replied.

"Fine," he dramatically sighed and looked out the window.

"Oh... My... Gods," Annabeth gasped out, staring at Bell Tower in wonder. Her eyes were wide with fascination and her jaw had dropped, the moment the tower came into view.

Annabeth had been reading the brochure that was handed out at the airport with some difficulty. The Bell Tower was filled with fascinating historic content. It boasted a unique and distinctive design, resulting from a major architectural competition. This small bit of information set Annabeth off, blabbering out the amazing designs and saying, "Oh. I could've used that design for Olympus. It would have looked so amazing," or, "Wow. I should have thought of that."

The Swan Bells were a set of eighteen bells, hanging in a specially built high copper and glass campanile, commonly known as The Bell Tower, or the Swan Bell Tower. It overlooked the Swan River, and formed a sixteen-bell peal with two extra chromatic notes. They were one of the largest sets of change ringing bells in the world. No doubt, would it look spectacular during sunset.

"What do you think we have to get here?" Nico asked, curiously inspecting the tower.

"I guess we'll have to find out," Percy replied, as if it wasn't obvious enough.

"We'll be able to sense it because of its strong aura, so it won't be that hard. However, retrieving it might be a problem," Annabeth said.

Piper parked the car and hopped out, with us following suit. "Okay, I don't know about you guys, but I'm starved," she said.

"Anyone up for Chinese?" Percy asked, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Yes!" everyone chorused, walking up into the tower to the level that contained numerous restaurants. They varied from Chinese, Indonesian, Brazilian, Italian, Greece, and there were so many more.

After a lot of spring rolls, fiddling of chopsticks and noodles, fried rice and joking around, we decided to get down to business. One problem. This place was huge. The object could be in any nook or cranny. It could even be hidden in the cook's kitchen, or someone's purse. Or, it could be on the peak of the tower. How were we supposed to get that?

We finally decided to split up. We would cover more area and it would be faster. After deciding to meet back here after two hours, we set off with our partners. I was with Annabeth and we started from the topmost floor, right from scratch. It took all I had to not look out the windows and look through the telescopes. I had to force myself to not walk over to one, peek through it and see the whole city right beneath me.

"Do you have any clue where it could be? Whatever it is?" I asked her.

She frowned in concentration. "Not really, but there's this voice in the back of my mind that keeps telling me it's at the very top or very bottom. I'm not sure though."

"Okay. Do you think there is anything underneath this?" I asked.

"Maybe. We'll have to look for any sort of trap to some basement or fire escape of some sort. If nothing happens, we'll go to the very top."

This was even worse than searching for Eros' set of bow and arrows. This place had animate objects moving the whole time. We had to make our way through people. They way we looked so serious and seemed to be looking for something (which we were), gained us a lot of stares and attention.

"Ugh! First the two boys downstairs nearly trampled all over me, and now you two girls? Teens need to learn to have more respect for their elders," a frail, elderly woman I had accidentally shove, exclaimed, shaking her head in disapproval. She scowled at us one last time, before hobbling away, holding onto another girl's arm. Probably her granddaughter or something.

Then, out of nowhere, a blonde teen flew up from below. I looked out the window, to find Travis flying. "How the Hades did he get here?" I asked.

"Flying shoes," Annabeth replied. The mortals were all looking at him in wonder, saying how majestic of an eagle it was and how big it was. The Mist does wonders. He pulled his phone out and my phone vibrated a second later. I answered it and asked, "Why are you up here? Outside the building?"

"Well, Piper suggested that it might be at the very top. The other two girls are here with me and Nico. Thalia's too scared to fly up and Nico can't shadow travel there, so I have to."

"Oh... well, be careful," I said, before he hung up and shot up higher. About thirty seconds later, he came back down and shook his head.

"Well, should we explore the bottom?" I asked, when we couldn't find anything that helped on this floor.

She nodded, "Yeah."

"Hey, what's this?" I asked, examining what looked like a trapdoor. It didn't budge when I tried to open it. "Wait... it's got a code lock."

She crouched down beside me and inspected the key pad. "Well, these four have been pressed down a lot," she said, pointing at the numbers 4, 6, 9 and 0.

She groaned, "This is going to take ages."

We tried different combinations and on the seventeenth try, it was unlocked. The door unlocked and fell without us pushing it.

We fell in, against our own will. It was like we were sucked into some portal or some hole.

"Please don't tell me this is Tartarus! I do not want to go back there!" Annabeth screamed. I felt the wind rush past us and my hair whipping around my face and neck. I tried opening my eyes but they instantly closed shut.

"What is this?" I yelled.

"Who knows?"

Ten seconds later, we both landed on our feet. We didn't stumble or crash into anything. We just found our feet planted on the ground... Not literally, of course.

"Where are we?" we asked, simultaneously.

In front of us was a wall. Behind us was a wall. To our left was a wall. To our right, there was no wall. We turned and walked straight, then the path separated two ways.

"Holy Hades, this is a maze," I finally realised.

"We're on the outside," Annabeth said, "I think we need to find our way to the centre. Come on." She pulled on my wrist and dragged me.

Dead ends... There were so many. We ran into one every five seconds. Literally. I was sick and tired of this. I looked down at my watch. "It's been three hours and there's no signal down here," I told Annabeth.

"Ugh. They'll be searching for us everywhere. That ticking sound is getting faster and faster. Either we're running out of time, or we're getting closer."

"Ticking sound?" I repeated.

"Yeah," she said, frowning, "You don't hear it?"

I stopped running and perked up my ears. Then I heard it. It was faint, so it wasn't surprising that I hadn't heard it before. "Yeah, it's getting faster."

A voice at the back of my head said, 'Go left, then right, then left again. You'll find your prize there.'

I wasn't sure if I should have trusted that voice or not, but I told Annabeth.

Turn left.

Turn right.

Turn left.

One water pitcher that looked more like a vase. With no godly aura around it.

"It's fake," I muttered.

"What did the voice sound like?" Annabeth asked.

"Um... kind of soothing and trying to convince me, but I could sense some evil in it," I replied.

"Okay, go the opposite way."

Turning around, we went back to where we were and went the opposite way.

Turn right.

Turn left.

Turn right.

We found ourselves right in front of a door and the ticking sound was so fast. Each tick was probably a nanosecond apart. I hastily turned the doorknob and the door flew open.

A plain white table, with a water pitcher on it. This time, with a strong aura.

"Iris," Annabeth murmured. "The water pitcher is her sacred object."

I mentally did a happy dance inside my mind and thought_, 'Yes! One down!' _

I went forward to try and grab it but some invisible force didn't allow me to. I stumbled back slightly and asked, "Now, how do we get past _that?" _

The ticking noise wasn't as faint. In fact, it was getting louder and faster by the second. We still hadn't figured it out.

Annabeth tried, but we had the same result.

_'You want to get it? You will have to answer a question. You won't do this every time before getting an item, you have to do something different.' _The voice echoed around the walls. I could hear it everywhere. It _was _everywhere.

"Ask away," I said out loud.

_'Who am I?'_

This puzzled me. How were we supposed to guess who she was? We could only tell that she was female.

_'You only get one chance.' _

"I _know _her. She's a goddess," Annabeth said, clicking her fingers and paced. "Ugh... minor goddess. Definitely not Eris, Iris, Nike or Victoire, or - "

_'You hear that ticking noise? Once it reaches it's loudest and cannot tick any faster, this goddess... boom. She'll fade away. '_

"Definitely a minor goddess," I said. None of the Olympians or Hestia spoke like this.

_'Even though I want this goddess to fade, I will give you a clue, because I'd like to watch you with other challenges... it will be interesting. However, the daughter of Athena cannot help you any longer with this answer. Daughter of Demeter, you have to answer this. Asteria is my mother...' _

Asteria... Asteria... She had a daughter with Perses... Minor goddess... Betrayed Olympus...

_'Tick. Tick. Tick. Time's running out, daughter of Demeter.' _

I groaned internally.

_'Three.'_

Oh, gods. We were screwed.

_'Two.' _

Nyx? Hecate? Yes! Hecate!

_'One'_

"Hecate!" I exclaimed.

_'Very well done, daughter of Demeter.' _

Suddenly, all I saw was colours. Red, orange, green, blue, yellow, violet and indigo. The colours of the rainbow. I could feel myself being transported somewhere. I opened my eyes, just as I rolled out of somewhere.

"Whoa! There you guys are! We've been looking for you for hours!" Thalia exclaimed, worriedly.

Where was I? I blinked and looked around. We had just stumbled out of the now locked trapdoor and I was holding the pitcher.

"We got it," Annabeth said, breathlessly.

A slip of paper fell out of the pitcher and I read it.

_'You will receive a slip of paper with a message, every time you retrieve an object. Within a minute, the object will disappear by itself, magically to its owner. Thank you very much for finding this, Iris.' _

"Iris, huh? Well, now we know she's on our side," Piper said. The container suddenly disappeared and I was holding onto thin air, once again.

"Hey! Where _were_ you guys?" Travis asked, with the guys trailing behind him as he ran towards us.

"In a maze with a creepy goddess," I replied.

"What?"

"Well, you see that door?" Annabeth asked, pointing at the wooden door. "We opened it, and we were sucked in," she shuddered for a moment before continuing, "Then, we were in a maze. We had to go to the centre, and we found it, but in the room we were in, Hecate was speaking to us. We couldn't see her or anything, we could only hear her voice. When we tried grabbing the pitcher, some invisible force held us back. Katie had to answer a question in time so we could get it. She got it just in time. There was a ticking noise the whole time, and it got louder and faster every second. She said that every time we would try get an object, we would have to do something and do it in a time limit. If we don't complete it, the god or goddess will fade away. And now, we got a slip of paper saying that everytime we get something, there will be a slip of paper giving us a message. Our message for this was from Iris."

"Wow... so Hecate is on Janus and Nike's side," Nico replied.

"Yep."

"Well, that sucks. She could just use her stupid magical powers, and then _waala!_ We all disappear," Percy muttered.

"She could be doing that..." Annabeth said.

"Holy Hephaestus!" Leo exclaimed, "What if she _is?" _

We exchanged worried glances with each other.

"What's our next destination?" I asked.

Annabeth brought her map out of her bag and examined it. "Well, the closest one looks about only an hour or two away. Lake... how do you say this? Leschenaultia?"

"Yeh, that's right," Piper said. "I've been there. It used to be a dam and know it's a recreational lake, but they have fish and creatures there."

"Let's go tomorrow. It's ten right now," Travis suggested.

"Yeah, come on guys. Let's get a hotel," Leo said, bouncing up and down.

I couldn't help but think about what Percy had said. Would Hecate just use her magical powers, maybe become even stronger then destroy us, with the help of the others? Was there actually a possibility that this would happen? Would Hecate _really _do this? Would the minor gods do this? Do this to Olympus? Just for their spotlight?

So many questions, yet so little answers...

* * *

**Song For The Chapter: Another World by One Direction :D **

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	12. Chapter 11

**_For those who read 'My Senior Year', you would know that my best virtual friend has been hospitalised for a while. Now she is dead. FUCKING DEAD, OKAY? She died on 30th December 2012. And on 26th December 2012, another friend was killed on the streets by his fucking bullies. HE is also DEAD. And they were both two of my closest friends. _**

_I can only upload as fast as I can. I have a life outside of FanFiction and Wattpad. I've been out most of the time. I try to keep my chapters long and consistent, and interesting at the same time. _

_**To those who have been PM-ing and forcing me to upload, STOP IT! If you continue doing that, I won't continue this. I'm serious. The people on Wattpad understand, but do YOU?** _

_Give me a fucking break people. I'm only 13! I have a school life, a personal life, a life with my friends, and a love life, okay? It's holidays and I'm never even home half the time. Holidays for me means running away from my family, not being with them. I'm always arguing with my mum and my little brother, it's not even funny anymore. _

_I'm sorry I blew up. But I just got really mad _

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**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HoO. All rights belong to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

**- Piper's POV - **

Lake Leschenaultia. I had been there before. I had gone fishing, canoeing, swimming and camping with my dad there before. It was really fun, even though it was just the two of us. It was great bonding time for a father and her daughter. The place was just simply amazing. Australia had the best sceneries and views, mainly of the beaches and its natural landforms, like The Twelve Apostles, in Victoria. I hadn't been to many places here, but I knew enough about this land down under. I couldn't wait to go back to the recreational centre.

"Wake up!" I yelled in my boyfriend's ear. Leo jolted up in surprise and fell of the bed. I snickered slightly, muffling it by covering my mouth with my hand.

"Not cool, Beauty Queen. Not cool," he stated, shaking his head at me, yet smirking at the same time.

I shrugged and kissed him on the cheek, "You'll get over it."

Waking Percy and Travis up were always the worst. They were deep, and heavy sleepers. There was once even a time where Connor actually blew a horn right next to Percy's ear, and he didn't wake up. Well, only a little bit. He had just rolled over and muttered a few incoherent words before going back to snoring.

Breakfast. Oh, Hades. We didn't bother about any healthy food and diets. We literally devoured whatever junk there was, in the refridgerator of the hotel. He whipped out the ingredients from his tool belt and started cooking away.

"So, one hour drive, right?" Nico asked, curiously.

I nodded. "Depends on the traffic too. If there isn't any traffic, we could be able to make there in, I don't know, maybe forty minutes? If there is heavy traffic, then it could probably go as slow as two hours."

"Hopefully, nobody here is car sick," Travis muttered.

"Hey, Leo. Do you think you have blue food colouring in that cool magic belt of yours?" Percy hollered.

"Seaweed Brain, we don't have time for this," Annabeth scolded.

"Fine, jeesh."

An unusual silence dwelled upon us. I found my thoughts trailing back to the horrid vision I had seen in Katoptris last night. I hadn't told anyone about it. I had told myself to think about it myself and understand it, before sharing what I found out with the others.

Thinking about it, I suddenly lost my appetite. I sat back and brought my dagger out, only to find a reflection of myself on the blade. After a moment, the image shimmered and I found Camp Half-Blood set right in front of my eyes. The scene only lasted for about five seconds, but it was a lot of information.

There she was... dying. Not in a million years, would I have thought it would be _her_ who would be dying painfully on the ground, with some minor demigod. Slaughtered torturously. You could see those brown eyes of hers, filled with pain. She didn't look like herself. Nothing like the girl she was. Her weapon was way out of her reach, and she looked just about dead. The most surprising thing was that she wasn't fighting it. She was yielding. She knew she couldn't win. She just lay there, allowing the other to rip her up into shreds. Some people had tried moving forward to help, but were held back. She visibly cringed when she saw the sword coming down on her. With that one last blow to her torso, blood spurted out like a fountain and she laid there. Unmoving. Dead. Lifeless. She died a gruesome death.

I gasped in horror as I watched her murderer's lips curve up into a malicious smirk. With her bare hands, she wiped the victim's blood off her sword and saunter off, looking for another victim. It was like she was a ruthless, cold-hearted Career in the Hunger Games.

That was how the -

"Piper, you okay?" Thalia asked, cutting me out of my thoughts and watching me carefully. I instantly let go of my dagger, letting it clatter onto the wooden table. I already knew what my facial expression was of. Shock, surprise, and horror. My eyes were most likely glassy. I had known from previous experiences.

Everyone was watching me. They had all stopped eating and turned to me. "What did you see?" Annabeth asked.

I wasn't going to tell them what I saw just then. That would only worry them more. I decided to keep it to myself and tell them what I saw last night.

"Um.. I saw two people," I started, "Maybe god and goddess or demigods. I'm not entirely sure. They were in what looked like a dungeon. It was dark and mysterious. The guy had a long beard and looked really serious. They both were wearing dark robes. He was forcing the lady inside the dungeon, that locked people by bars, like jail. It looked like he was going to let her go, but then wasn't at the same time. Like he was debating with himself which decision was the better one. It's really confusing. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the guy was Hades."

"Yeah, it's my father," Nico said. "What did the lady look like?"

Thinking about it, I wasn't entirely sure. It seemed a bit... weird. "I think there were three heads at one point. But then, it became one head. It always changed. Her hair was black and her eyes were green, I think."

"Hecate," he mumbled.

"But, what would they be doing there?" Katie asked.

"Probably something kinky," Travis mused, eyes twinkling with laughter, earning him a punch in the gut from his lovely girlfriend. Nico's eyes widened in horror at the thought of his father with Hecate like _that. _

"Ugh," he groaned, as the guys snickered at him.

"Guys, we should go," Thalia spoke up, "Something is telling me that we have no time to waste."

"Yeah," Annabeth agreed, "Let's go."

* * *

I missed Lake Leshenaultia. I had completely forgotten what it was like. The boiling hot weather with only a slight breeze. We had to put on layers of sunscreen so we wouldn't get sunburnt. Trust me, I knew the feeling and it wasn't very nice. Nowhere near nice.

Australia was known for their hot, humid weather. They had high, sometimes extreme, UV rays, even when there was no sunlight visible. Right now, the rays of light hit the water, which at first, blinded us due to its glossiness. The water shimmered peacefully as trees swayed slightly.

Thalia spoke up, "I feel something with a special aura over there." She was pointing at the trees behind one of the cabins. Before any of us could blink, she was already running towards the spot. And there it was. The sacred bow of Artemis and her quiver filled with arrows. Just as she was reaching for it, she was pulled back by an invisible force and stumbled, trying to gain her balance again.

"How do we get through that?" I asked.

Right after I had said that, a small slip of paper came down.

_'You need to get something else before this. Remember only one person can hear the ticking noise now. Find the 'one', and you'll find out how to retrieve this.' _

"Ticking noise," Annabeth muttered, "Who can hear it?"

"Not me," everyone but me stated.

My ears perked up and sure enough, I heard it. Slow and steady.

"You have to keep us warned," the daughter of Athena ordered.

I nodded as we walked back outside, blue water meeting our eyes once again.

Anyone could tell that Percy was dying to take a swim in the cool, refreshing water. It actually took all it had in him to not to jump in right then and then. For some reason, I felt the strangest urge to walk onto the wharf and jump off the jetty, and into the water. It was like there was an invisible cord pulling me closer, as my legs transported myself to the edge of the jetty.

My eyelids felt heavier as I looked down. It looked like a whirlpool around the jetty. What was happening? I looked over to my friends and they seemed to be in a trance too. I was probably the only who knew what was happening. The sleeping face of a young man appeared in the water's reflection. A small stubble was visible and there was a set of wings attached to his head. Behind his head was a bed made of feathers, telling me who this god was. Hypnos.

Well, that definitely explained why we were all in that trance and why I felt so much sleepier. I thought, _'Can't Poseidon shoo him out of his territory?' _The god's lips moved mouthing some words. The others seemed oblivious to it as he murmured dazily, "Fall in, and you'll be able to breathe and talk. It will only make you sleepier." He swayed slightly as his eyes fluttered. "There's one thing down there. Once you fall asleep, there is _no _way of waking up again."

We all fell in the cool water at the same time, and the ticking sound grew louder. It rang in my ears, incessantly.

"Whoa! We're in the water!" Leo exclaimed, "And we can breathe and talk!"

Nico and Thalia were panicking. They were in their uncle's turf and were afraid of being turned into a clump of seaweed. But considering Percy was here, it was okay.

"Guys! What are we doing here?" Katie asked, looking around.

"Didn't you guys hear or see him? Hypnos?" I asked.

"Hynos was here?"

"Yeah. He said that when we fall in, we'll be able to breathe and talk. But it will make us sleepier. There's something down here we need to get for the bow and arrows. Once we fall asleep, we won't wake up," I explained.

"You know, how you said when we fall asleep, we won't wake up?" Travis asked, "Does that mean... oh, I don't know, _never wake up ?" _

I nodded.

"Holy Hephaestus!" Leo shouted. "We have to hurry up!"

This was a man-made lake. _Man-made. _And there were weeds, algae and harmful plants in the water. There were several species of small fish swimming around.

"Hey, guys!" Percy greeted. I looked at him, like he was some creep, then remembered that he could talk to them.

"Oh, nothing. Just a quest."

"Percy! This is no time for talking to fish," Annabeth scolded.

"Okay, fine!" he said, but continued talking to the fish.

"What?" he exclaimed in shock. The fish yabbered something to him, surprising him even more.

"Ice?" he asked, shaking his head, "But, come on! It's pretty much a hundred degrees out there. How can there be ice?"

After a few seconds, he cried out, "I don't care if Australians use Celsius! We use Fahrenheit! And, the ice would _melt _ the second it's in this water."

He sighed after a moment, "Okay, okay. But if we never wake up here, I'm blaming this on _you guys."_

We snickered in amusement as we watched Percy being bossed around by the fish that were swimming around in laps, innocently.

"What did they say?" I asked.

"_Apparently, _there is a huge chunk of ice in this water. They told us to follow them."

"Does anybody seem sleepy?" Travis asked, his eyes threatening to close.

"Yeah," Katie muttered in response.

I never thought there would _ever _be a day where we were being ordered around by fish. I mean, seriously? Thalia, Nico and Annabeth were all scared of being turned into a clump of seaweed and they couldn't swim properly. Then the rest of us were quite reluctant to go deeper into the water.

"I just remembered!" Nico said, "Artemis is also the goddess of lakes."

"We knew that ages ago," Thalia replied.

After swimming for about six hundred metres, with much difficulty, considering we all had our backpacks and weapons with us, we arrived at the place where the lake was narrowing. On both sides of us, were walls of mud, dirt, twigs and leaves. Above that would be the grass where people would walk on and have picnics. There were a few holes visible in the mud. They were probably the tunnels leading to the habitats of platypi.

The ticking noise was gone. I couldn't hear it. My arms and legs were about to fall asleep. My right foot was pins and needles and my eyelids were growing heavier by the second. I was sure I was about to pass out.

Sure enough, the fish stopped right in front of a block of ice. Inside was a young girl. Her black hair sprawled out behind and her eyes glassy from the ice. This must have been Hecate's doing. As Percy had said, the ice would have melted from the heat here.

The fish said something to Percy before swimming away.

"We need to get that girl out of there. She's the key to the bows and arrows."

Suddenly, I was seeing doubles. Why were there two blocks of ice? My mind fuzzled and as I blinked, I found the urge to not open my eyes again.

I tried reaching for it, but when I was about two metres away from it, I was pulled back.

"Oh and our powers won't affect ourselves, unless we are directly touching someone," Percy added.

He conjured the water two metres around the ice up and heated it to boiling temperature. The ice shook slightly, but nothing else happened.

"Does the water extinguish fire here?" Leo asked.

"Don't know. Try it."

Leo held out his hand, and a fireball danced above his palm. He threw it at the ice, causing it to shake violently. A few small cracks appeared and that was all.

Thalia instantly shot a strike of lightning at it. Only a few more cracks appeared. Katie tried strangling the block with vines, hoping to crush it to pieces but to no avail. Percy was on the brink of falling to sleep until Thalia zapped him with electricity. Nico walked forward slowly and was able to touch the cube.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

He shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe since I can't shadow travel here, they let me in."

Travis passed the invisible barrier. It was probably because he could've flied in with his shoes. Thalia passed it too, leaving the remaining five of us outside. Then Annabeth, got her invisibility cap out of her pocket and put it on before appearing inside the barrier too. Her mother had given back the magic hat to her after the Giant War. Four of us then. And we were trapped outside.

"Okay. Let's try this. Piper, you use your charmspeaking skills. Percy, you shake it around and melt it. Leo, shoot fireballs but avoid us. Katie, use your vines to strangle it. We'll use our..." she trailed off, drowsily. Her eyes closed nearly all the way, but not before Thalia zapped her, jolting her back up. "Weapons," she continued, like nothing had happened at all.

"Now," she commanded.

"Come on, ice. Melt," I put as much charmspeak into my words as possible. It was weird. Talking to a huge block of ice.

As I continued to charmspeak it, the four inside the barrier were pulverising the ice with there weapons, while the rest of us were attacking it with our powers. I was probably the most useless one here. Percy was shaking as he held his fist up. The ice was shaking violently as the powers of him, Thalia, Leo, Katie and Nico were combined. After the war, Hades had rewarded Nico with dark power. Nobody could really explain it very well, but it was quite powerful.

Suddenly, my charmspeak was gone and my words died in my throat. The vines somehow unravelled themselves from the ice and disappeared. The heat from Leo's fire was gone, and so was the warm water Percy had created. There were no more flashes of lightning coming from Thalia's body and weapons were scattered in the water.

I felt weak at the knees and my limbs felt like jello.

_'Honey, stay up. You have to do this. You can do this,' _a persuasive, yet sweet and soothing voice echoed around my head. My mother. Her voice was soon replaced by the irritating ticking sound ringing rapidly in my ears again. With some new found energy, I opened my eyes wide and said, "Guys. Get up!"

They all stared at me as I put as much force as I could in my words. "Get up and break this cube."

Knowing they had barely any energy left, they still stood up, gathering their weapons, not wanting to stay asleep forever under Hypnos' spell.

Within a few seconds, we were all on our feet, our balance back to normal.

"Three, two, one. GO!" Annabeth shouted.

I opened my mouth and with my words and voice, I soothed the ice, which seemed to melt more, as I put more and more force into my words each first strangled the vines around the ice, making it look like a little kid's awfully made wrapped Christmas present. She winced slightly as her knees buckled a bit under the pressure, and she closed her eyes tight and focused. Then, Leo and Percy struck with their powers at the same time. We all would have thought that the water would get rid of the fire instantly. However, because of the numerous spells, Hecate had casted in this water, it didn't. The heat of them both together made the ice melt rapidly. The block of ice started to vibrate even more as Percy used the currents to shake it, along with Katie's vines.

The ticking sound was pretty much nearly one. We were nearly doomed. Nico muttered a few inchorent things under his breath, while transferring some of his mysterious, dark powers through his Stygian Iron sword before slamming it into the ice with a yell, shattering it. A huge chunk of the ice came apart and floated away. Annabeth, with her dagger, and Travis, with his sword, stabbed at it in slow but steady movements. They looked for cracks and made them larger, by plunging their weapons at the ends of each crack.

Meanwhile, Thalia had stuck her spear up above the surface, trying to gather as much electricity as she could. With one massive thrust, she brought the spear down and stabbed it into the centre of the front of the ice, with a scream.

The ticking sound. Gone.

The ice shattered into millions of pieces - some big, some small. The spells were gone. It was like a bomb. Like the girl inside the ice, was the bomb. Pieces of ice hit our bodies hard painfully. One shard was half buried in my arm and I screamed out, as I flew back a few feet. Suddenly, I felt my lungs constrict and the need for air. In two seconds, I found myself gasping for air at the surface. The others except Percy were doing the same.

I turned around realising that I had accidentally dropped _Katoptris _when I resurfaced, but Percy had come up. In his arms, was a girl, no older than fourteen. She was quite tall, and a bit on the skinny side, but she was beautiful. Her black hair was dripping wet like ours, and her eyelids were closed, but she was breathing.

In Percy's left hand was _Katoptris. _"Looking for something?"

He handed my dagger back to me. We hauled the young girl up the bank and onto the grass where the others were sprawled out.

"Need... sleep..." Leo muttered, before falling into his slumber, with the rest of them following his actions. My knees buckled underneath me, and I fell onto the soft grass, with my eyes closed.

* * *

**AAAAARRRGHHHH! FUCKING WRITER'S BLOCK CAN GO DIE IN TARTARUS! :( **

**Wow, this chapter was hard to write. **

**Now, who do you think is the one Piper saw dying in the knife? And who do you think is the one killing her? **

**I told you I would change point of view's now, wouldn't I? :) **

**Song For The Chapter: Everybody Hurts by Avril Lavigne**

**READ AND REVIEW! :) **


	13. Note

**I'm sorry to say this, but all my stories will be on HAITUS. I'm busy with school and I have a few beginning of year exams. I have tons of homework, and I don't really have any inspiration for writing this right now. Sorry! **


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